These Strawberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies are so fun to make! It’s a super simple recipe, and you can fill it with whatever you like. I’d recommend keeping this one in your back pocket!
Hi everyone! How’s the weather by you? It’s snowing right now in New York, even though it was just 60 degrees the other day. My wardrobe is just as confused as I am. On the bright side, snowy weather = Netflix time. I finished Black Mirror the other day and I’m already pining for more episodes. Hurry, Netflix, hurry!
To make myself feel a little better, I decided to whip up these strawberry jam thumbprint cookies. Before I go any further, I’d like to just start off by saying that I adore strawberry jam. There’s nothing wrong with other jams and preserves, but I grew up on strawberry jam so it’s my #1.
My aunts and uncles used to come over every Saturday for breakfast when I was little; we feasted on Italian bread, French butter (ugh don’t even get me started), and various toppings like honey and jam. I personally loved spreading some butter on a slice of bread with a dollop of strawberry jam on top. It was mm mm good!
Suffice it to say that I had to make these thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam today. If you haven’t given thumbprint cookies a shot before, I’d say today is a great day to do so! They are dead simple to make and you can fill them with whatever you like.
I’ve made a lemon version filled with strawberry jam (tasted a lot like pink lemonade!), another version with raspberry jam, and one with homemade caramel. These little cookies do a great job of complementing whatever flavor you throw at them!
I should also warn you that these are super addicting. The recipe yields 4 dozen cookies and they’re rather small, which means I have 48 delicious cookies waiting to get in my belly at this very moment.
… Be right back.
Okay hi, it’s me again! I may or may not have scarfed down another 2 or 93295720 cookies just now. 🙂
I know I’ve been going on and on about the strawberry jam portion of this recipe, but let’s not forget about the cookie itself! The cookies are made with butter and cream cheese and trust me, it shows. The cream cheese gives the cookie a nice thick crumb while the butter results in a cookie that tastes like, well, a butter cookie! Win-win, am I right?
There are a couple of secret weapons to have at hand when making these cookies: a measuring spoon and a zip top/piping bag. You’ll need the measuring spoon to get the perfect indent in your cookie. I know these are called thumbprint cookies so you could obviously use your thumbs to press down on the dough, but for aesthetic reasons, I chose to just use my measuring spoon.
As for the zip top/piping bag, I’ve found piping the filling into the cookies to be a much easier alternative over spooning it in. Once the cookies come out of the oven the first time, you’ll want to work fast, so piping is definitely the way to go here.
Once you’re done piping the filling, throw those bad boys into the oven one more time and prepare yourself for some good noms.
Thumbprint cookies are so versatile, so you can really experiment as much as you want. Here are some fillings and variations I’d like to try in the future:
- Nutella
- Salted caramel
- Cake batter/Funfetti
- Lemon curd
- White chocolate
- Matcha
- Eggnog
- Red velvet with a cream cheese center
If you have any other thumbprint cookie ideas or you baked these at home, feel free to drop a line in the comment section and rate the recipe — I’d love to hear from you!
Here’s to strawberry jam!
Print
Strawberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 24
- Total Time: 90 minutes
- Yield: 48 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Swedish
Description
Thumbprint cookies are my absolute favorite–this recipe is super simple and you can fill it with whatever you like!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup seedless jam of your choice
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (softened)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) full-fat block cream cheese (softened)
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Fill a zip top or piping bag with the jam and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the cream cheese, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until combined (about 30 seconds), scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Slowly add the flour mixture and whisk at low speed until combined, about another 30 seconds.
- Scoop out 1 1/2 teaspoons of dough (or use a #60 cookie scoop), roll the dough into balls, and lay on the prepared baking sheet. You’ll want to space them about 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Lightly press the bottom of a teaspoon measuring spoon into the center of each dough ball to make a small indentation.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Make sure to only bake one sheet at a time.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and use the bottom of the teaspoon measuring spoon to reshape the indents in the cookies.
- Take your zip top/pastry bag and snip off a small corner. Pipe about a 1/2 teaspoon of jam into each cookie.
- Put the baking sheet back into the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes until golden around the edges.
- Follow the same steps for the next baking sheet!
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to complete the cooling process.
Strawberry jam is my favorite too! These cookies look incredible. They are such a perfect way to use up leftover jam too.
Thanks, Tara! I agree – I have a few jars of jam around the house that I haven’t gotten around to finishing yet, so these cookies are the perfect outlet for that.
I totally read 60 degrees and was like HOLY MOLY THAT’S HOT! Then I remembered in the US you do things in Farenheit lol. Here in the UK we have settled firmly into our long grey, dull, wet and chilly season. It should last until about May, lift for a week, and then return haha.
I’ve never made thumbprint cookies before, I have to admit but these look so cute and tempting I might have to try my hand at making some egg/dairy free ones.
Hahaha that’s too funny! Thumbprint cookies are one of my favorite cookies; they’re right up there with ginger snaps! Do let me know how it goes when you make your egg/dairy free version. 🙂
I love thumbprint cookies. I use to make them often when the kids were smaller.. must make again. Your recipe looks so easy – must try! Thanks
Yes yes yes! Thumbprint cookies are so easy and fun to make — I loved them when I was a kid and haven’t stopped loving them since!
These look absolutely perfect! I would love one right now.
These look so moreish! I was thinking before I saw it in your list that lemon curd would be good . And nutella- I’m a bit of a nutella addict…
Same here! i could have Nutella on everything, everyday. It’s just that good.
Your cookies look so beautiful! These are one of my favourite cookies (although, where I grew up, we called them “jam drops” ;-)) Lovely to discover your blog and a fellow Vietnamese blogger 🙂
Thank you so much, Thanh! Jam drops is a much cuter name for these cookies haha. And yes, it is great to see a fellow Vietnamese blogger! Your blog looks absolutely delightful – going to sign up for your mailing list now! 🙂
These look so gorgeous! I remember these from when I was little – I think we called them “dolls eyes”. I would love to make them again
I had these when I was little as well! This is my first time hearing of them referred to as dolls’ eyes 🙂
I am thinking maybe lemon cookie with blueberry jam would be good
That definitely sounds like a delicious combination! I’ll be trying that one next 🙂
Help I just made the strawberry jam cookies my dough is very sticky I can’t roll into a ball what should I do
Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear this! This sounds like a flour-related issue. Are you using all-purpose flour or another type of flour? Also, if it helps to weigh out the flour instead, you should have about 280 grams of flour in the recipe! Let me know if that helps!
The same thing happened to me,, I kept adding sprinkles of flour to the dough and my hands until the dough was no longer sticky and I was able to roll into balls. Hope it helps.
Plum jam is pretty good in there too!
Ooooh! I’ve never had plum jam but I looove plums so I definitely have to give that one a try!
How can you stack these on top of each other??? The jam keeps sticking to the one on top!
Help!!! I have them made, I need to ship them out of here before I eat them all!!!
Oh no, so sorry to hear they’re sticking together Janet! I haven’t had this happen before but it might help to refrigerate the cookies for a few minutes to allow the jam to set. You can also try taking the cookies out a couple of minutes earlier and then filling them with jam so that the jam gets a little more baking time. Hope you’re enjoying them outside of that!
Thank you for replying. I will try this!
Just made a batch of these for my daughter’s wedding. They came out great! I made Raspberry, strawberry and cherry blueberry.
Congratulations to your daughter! I’m so happy to hear they came out great and the flavors you chose all sound delicious!
24 minutes for a #60 scoop cookie sounds like a LOT. I just did my name step (so 10 min of baking so far) and already brown on bottom and golden on top. No way can they withstand 12+ more minutes?!