The perfect mix of buttery texture, crunchy nuttiness and sweet jam these Buttery Jam Thumbprint Cookies are sure to be a crowd pleaser!
Passed down through the generations recipes like this are the reason this website was created in the first place.
Family recipes
The reason I started blogging years ago was for the sole purpose of preserving family recipes and organizing them into an easy accessible format.
This recipe for buttery jam thumbprint cookies is one of the very recipes that went up on this website. Because it’s a classic!
Made every year by my husband’s step mom these Buttery Jam Thumbprint Cookies are the quintessential taste of Christmas cookies for my family. That Chewy Ginger Cookies and Peanut Butter Fudge, of course!
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter (1 stick)
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg (whites and yolks seperate)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup finely chopped pecans – or any other nut of your choice
- ¼ cup raspberry jam – or any other jam or jelly of your choice. Even citrus curd or caramel can be substituted in the filling.
Step by step instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter and packed brown sugar.
- Separate the egg and reserve the white for later.
- Add egg yolk and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and combine.
- Blend flour and salt and stir in.
- Finely chop pecans. Then prepare a station to dip the cookies with a plate for the whipped egg white and another with the chopped nuts. Placed the ungreased cookie sheet nearby.
- Dip teaspoon sized cookie balls in egg white then in chopped nuts.
- Place on cookie sheet 1″ apart. Using your finger or the end of a round kitchen utensil and make an indent in the center of each cookie.
- Bake 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool. If indents are not as pronounced as you like, press finger in again while still warm.
- Stir raspberry jam to loosen and spoon ¼ teaspoon in the middle of each cookie.
- Enjoy!
Customize
The flavor combinations are limited only to your imagination! Try raspberry-pecan, raspberry-walnut, strawberry-almond, apricot-coconut, fig-coconut and coconut filled with lemon or lime curd.
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg (separated)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup nuts finely chopped, or coconut
- ¼ cup jam or jelly
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla.
- Blend flour and salt, stir in.
- Roll dough into balls (about 1 teaspoon size).
- Beat egg whites with fork.
- Dip balls in egg whites, roll in nuts.
- Place on ungreased baking sheet.
- Press thumb in center and bake 10 – 12 minutes.
- Cool.
- Fill with jam.
Caterina
Tasted good but the cookies completely flattened
ONE armed MAMA
Hi Caterina, thanks for commenting! There is very little liquid (only 1 egg yolk) in the cookie dough so I’m not sure why your cookies would have flattened. Also, if butter is too warm or melted it can cause cookies to flatten.
Brigitte Baker
Pin for later link not working just an FYI😊
Tristin Rieken
Thanks so much! fixed now 🙂