If you’ve ever had a thumbprint cookie, a classic Christmas cookie, you’ll know how delicious they are! Some sort of sweet filling that contrasts the rest of the cookies gets placed in the center of the cookies for a delicious treat that everyone loves! These strawberry jam thumbprint cookies are one of my favorite treats to make all year round, not just at the holidays! They’re especially good during the summer when you can use fresh strawberry jam or strawberry preserves! But if you’re looking for a cookie to make during the holiday season, these do make a good option for a cookie exchange or Christmas party! You could even make these along with these chocolate thumbprint cookies! Plus, they’re so easy to make, you could just whip up a batch weekly if you really wanted! We love them enough to do that, and I hope you love this thumbprint cookie recipe too!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Strawberry lemon flavor – these start with a soft sugar cookie that gets topped with strawberry jam and a lemon glaze. The combination of the two together just makes for a bright and fresh tasting treat! Easy – while the cookie dough does need to chill, it’s super to easy to make in the first place. And adding the jam on the center of the cookie is a piece of cake as well! They make look like a lot of work, but they’re really not bad (not any harder than making these easy snickerdoodles). Versatile – while I like to make these with strawberry on top, you could totally make them with any preserves you like to mix up the flavors! There’s no wrong answer (as long as it’s sweet).
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Butter – these are buttery cookies first, so I recommend using high quality butter if possible. No matter what quality butter you use, you’ll want to use unsalted butter that’s softened to room temperature.Eggs – you’ll need one whole egg and one egg yolk. I know some people use two egg yolks, but I like the combination of the egg and egg yolk together. Flour – you want to use all purpose flour that’s unbleached (most are these days). Strawberry jam or preserves – either one works great or as I said before you can totally change it up and use a different flavor instead. I’m particular to strawberry jam cookies, but raspberry preserves or raspberry jam make really good raspberry thumbprint cookies too. Oh and as you’re choosing your jam, I like to use a sweet strawberry jam, none of the sugar-free kind. Lemon juice – I like the combination of lemon juice with the strawberry (especially if I’m making these during the summer), but if you don’t love lemon, you can also just use water and go with classic flavors instead. If you really want to go lemony, you could even add in a tsp of lemon zest to the glaze or sprinkle a little on top in the center of each cookie.
How to Make Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies
If you’ve ever made thumbprint cookies before, they’re pretty simple. You make a buttery shortbread base, chill the dough, roll it, then add a teaspoon jam thumbprint, and bake. It’s that thumbprint on top that makes them really unique (and really delicious). First, beat butter and two cups of sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer, (save the other 1/2 cup for rolling cookie balls in) in a large bowl on medium-high speed until well mixed. It may seem like a lot of butter, but it is a butter cookie recipe after all. And it’s not nearly as much butter as I used in my Kentucky butter cookies! Butter just makes for delicious cookies. Next add the vanilla extract, egg, and egg yolk to the bowl and mix on low speed until well combined. Then slowly mix in flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. I like to do this using an electric mixer just to make sure that everything gets well mixed! Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes (longer is fine). If you need your mixer, you can remove the dough from the bowl and plastic in a zipper top bag or on a large cookie sheet covered with plastic wrap as well. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, create cookie balls that are about 1-inch balls. This will give you fairly small cookies with lots to share! Roll cookie dough balls in the remaining sugar before placing them about 2” apart on the prepared baking sheet. Make sure to roll dough all the way around so all the surfaces of the cookies are covered in sugar. The cookies will spread slightly so giving them space to spread will help you get the best results! Using a 1/2 teaspoon, or your thumb, create a bowl on the top of the cookie. No need to really shape dough, just press down gently to create an indention for the jam. Fill with jam or fruit preserves (I used strawberry) and sprinkle the sweet jam center with a little more sugar. Make sure to keep the cookies an inch or two apart on the cookie trays so that they have space to spread out slightly when they bake. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes or until the edges start to brown a little. If the cookies spread too much and overlap each other, just make sure to spread them out a bit more in the next batch! Let cookies cool completely on the baking sheet then move to a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies completely before enjoying. That jam center can get really hot! While cookies are cooling, make glaze by mixing all of the ingredients then when cookies are cool, drizzle glaze over cookies. Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled! These classic thumbprint cookies are a great addition to any holiday cookie plate, a summer party, or really any time you just want are craving something sweet!
Expert Tips
Add more jam to the center of the baked cookies while they’re still hot if your jam isn’t centered or they spread more than you want them to and the jam looks off. A little extra jam never hurt anyone! Mix it up with different flavors of jam and glaze. These would be great with a little orange glaze and some cranberry jam for the holidays. Or how about something like a peanut butter filling with a chocolate glaze on top. Store in an airtight container for up to five days. If you want to chill them, put in the refrigerator in an airtight container and serve directly from the fridge (or take them out and let them come to room temperature).
More Easy Cookie Recipes
If you need even more cookie recipes, make sure to try out some of these fun ones!
Creamsicle cookies – these fun orange creamsicle cookies taste like a creamsicle popsicle in cookie form!Reese’s Pieces cookies – soft and chewy peanut butter cookies full of Reese’s Pieces candies! Oreo stuffed cookies – chocolate chip cookies stuffed full of Oreo flavor! Rice krispie cookies – a really fun alternative to a traditional chocolate chip M&M cookie! Dirt cookies – these delicious chocolate cookies are topped with chocolate frosting and dirt and worms!
