Easy Thumbprint Cookies
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These classic Thumbprint Cookies combine soft, buttery shortbread cookies with your favorite fillings for the perfect Christmas treat!
The dough is made with just 5 simple ingredients, and then rolled into individual balls. Use your thumb to make an imprint before filling with your favorite jam, chocolate or other delicious fillings!
When it comes to holiday baking, Gingerbread Cookies, Jammie Dodgers and these melt-in-your-mouth thumbprint sugar cookies are hands-down my favorites! They’re so festive and easy to make ahead of time. Continue reading as I’ll share step-by-step pictures and a video to learn how to make them perfectly.
The thumbprint cookie dough is made with only 5 simple ingredients: butter, sugar, all-purpose flour, cornstarch and vanilla extract. To get that perfect sweet, buttery flavor, use high-quality unsalted butter and soften it before mixing. This ensures a smooth dough that’s less likely to crack.
I also used three tablespoons of cornstarch, which give the cookies extra lift and leave them extra soft. Adding cornstarch is a great trick for making super soft cookies! This recipe doesn’t use eggs, as I find the texture is smoother and the cookies hold their shapes better during cooking without eggs.
After mixing all 5 ingredients and forming a dough, roll it into small balls. I made an impression with my thumb right after making each ball, before the dough starts to stiffen. Then chill the indented balls. For jam thumbprint cookies, add the filling before baking. For chocolate thumbprint cookies, add it afterward.
How do you prevent them from cracking?
To avoid cracking, it’s important to roll the cookie dough balls until the surface is smooth. You need to have nice balls to start without any cracks. The warmth from your hands will help to get that perfectly smooth texture!
Once a cookie dough ball is formed, make an imprint as soon as possible! Don’t make all balls first and then indent all at once, as the dough stiffens while resting, forming a crust that causes cracks when you make a well in the middle. If you still see small cracks, however, you can press the dough to seal.
How to prevent them from spreading?
Cookies tend to spread out during baking as fats in the dough melt. Without enough flour to hold the melted fat, the cookies will spread too much.
To make sure your cookies hold the shape, you need to use the right ingredient ratios and keep the dough cool before baking. So the first step is to measure your ingredients correctly. It’s best to use a kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, fill your measuring cup and use a knife to level it off.
Next, don’t over-mix your ingredients. Stop mixing when everything is combined. It’s also a good idea to chill the dough before baking as the colder the dough, the less the cookies will over-spread. Lastly, when you’re baking in batches, never add cookie dough onto a hot baking sheet directly!
Filling options
Jam Filling: Old fashioned thumbprint cookies use jam such as raspberry, apricot, strawberry and cherry jam. If the jam is too thick, you can take a few tablespoons out and microwave for 10 seconds before use. It’s best to add it to the cookie dough balls BEFORE baking.
Chocolate Filling: If using a chocolate filling, you bake the cookies first, and then add the melted chocolate to the well AFTER baking. I like to use both melted white and dark chocolate and decorated with festive sprinkles and candies to make different Christmas thumbprint cookies.
Store these homemade thumbprint cookies in an airtight container, and they can last for up to 5 days at room temperature or in the fridge. They also freeze well and last for up to 3 months when stored in a sealed freezer-safe bag.
More Christmas Cookies:
Easy Thumbprint Cookies 5 Ways (+ Video)
Ingredients
Thumbprint Cookie Dough
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Jam Filling
- 1/4 cup raspberry jam, or other flavors such as apricot, strawberry and cherry jam
Chocolate Filling with Holiday Sprinkles
- 3 oz white chocolate, melted
- holiday sprinkles
Dark Chocolate Filling with Bear Paw Decor
- 3 oz semisweet chocolate, melted
White Chocolate Filling with Snowman Decor
- 3 oz white chocolate, melted
- 1 teaspoon colored sprinkles
Dark Chocolate Filling with Reindeer Decor
- 1/4 cup candy eyeballs
- 1/4 cup red decorating balls
- 1 cup pretzels
Instructions
Make Thumbprint Cookie Dough
- Fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. (You can also use a large mixing bowl and electric hand mixer.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- To the stand mixer bowl, add softened butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, creamy and well combined, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Then add flour and cornstarch, mixing on low speed until completely combined, about 2 minutes. (If you use a hand mixer, now you can mix with a wooden spoon.)
- The dough will now look dry and crumbly. Scape down the sides again and use your hands to form the dough into one piece.
- Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll it between the palms of your hands to shape it into a 1 ¼ inch (3cm) ball. Make sure the ball is smooth with no cracks.
- Press the tip of your thumb about a 1/2 inch into the middle of the ball to make an imprint. (You can also use the back of a ¼ teaspoon instead of your thumb). Repeat until you use up all of the dough.
- Place the indented balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch in between the balls.
- Transfer the balls to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
Make Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- About 10 minutes before the end of chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Take the jam out of the bottle and stir. If it’s too thick, you can place it in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 10 seconds before using them.
- Remove the chilled cookie dough balls from the fridge, and spoon jam into each indented ball. Fill the indent full, but not over-flowing.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, removing from the oven before they start to brown.
- Using a rigid spatula, remove the cookies to wire cooling racks to cool completely.
Make Chocolate Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- About 10 minutes before the end of chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Bake the unfilled cookie balls for 10-12 minutes.
- During baking, place your chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave at 50% power in 30-second intervals, stirring each time until smooth. (It usually takes 2-3 minutes depending on the amount of chocolate and the power on your microwave.)
- Remove the cookies from the oven before they start to brown. Transfer to cooling racks using a rigid spatula and allow to cool completely.
- Spoon the melted chocolate into each well, decorating with sprinkles, candies or pretzel pieces according to post photos or your own preference.
Notes
- *If you don't have cornstarch, you can use 2 cups + 3 tablespoons of cake & pastry flour instead of the all-purpose flour and cornstarch mix.
- These cookies will stay fresh for up to 5 days in a tightly sealed container.
- Other variations: You can add lemon zest or swap out vanilla for an almond extract for different flavors of cookie dough.
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These cookies turned out incredible!! I will definitely make these cookies again!!!
Hi Brenda, Awesome to hear and thanks for your comment!
We made these for the Christmas party at the park. over 200 people and everyone enjoyed them.
Hi Heidi, Thanks for your review – so great to hear. Happy holidays!
Can you use gluten free flour?
Hi Jamie, I haven’t tried it with gluten-free so can’t comment definitively. Let me know if you try.
I don’t like butter Is it okay to use margarine instead of butter?
Hi Jean, You need butter to get the right consistency. You can try margarine, but there’s some risk to it.
Why do they have 41mg sodium when you use unsalted butter and no salt?
Hi Jocelyn, Thanks for your question. It’s the pretzels, chocolate and candy that have some sodium. Hope that helps!
I made these cookies twice already and I love them! I read a review that they had a funny taste because of the cornstarch but that’s so not true. She must be making them wrong. Thanks for the wonderful recipe! Keep them coming!
Hi Rachel, Thanks so much – you really made my day. You’re right about the cornstarch, it’s classic 🙂
Hi. I made this delicious cookies last night.😊
But I don’t know why the cookies broken in the edges!Did I something wrong??
Hi Foboki, Thanks for your review and I don’t think you did anything wrong. Check your oven temperature and maybe try a different brand of flour. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hola, cómo están? Me podrías ayudar en la cantidad de sal que se le hecha? No está en los ingredientes. Muchas gracias!
Hola Lina, Gracia para tu pregunta, pero no hay sal en esta receta… 😉
Hi, thank you for the recipe, I will try it shortly. Do you know if maize starch can be used instead of cornstarch?
Thank you!
Hi Tatiana, Thanks for your comment! Maize starch and cornstarch are the same thing, so you should be fine. Enjoy! 🙂
For 28 years I’ve been looking for the RIGHT version of thumbprint cookies. I made them for my mother to take to her knitting class party 28 years ago. I knew they had to be impressive. They were a hit. I’ve wondered if she took credit for them. Bless her soul. She went to heaven in 1999. Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Mary, You really made my day and I’m so delighted to hear that. It’s what food’s all about, sharing precious moments together! 🙂
MY Husband went ga-ga over these cookies. Im making them again this holiday season!
Hey Sharon, That’s amazing, nothing better than a ga-ha husband 🙂 Hope you enjoyed the holiday and see you soon on the site.
Thanks for recipe sound very nice and easy to make I will definitely bake them.And I am sure my husband and grand children will love them❤
Thanks Madelene, Hope you enjoyed them! 🙂
Recipe says to add vanilla twice?? When should it be added? This is my first time making your recipe looking forward to it just want it to be right.
Hi Wendy, Thanks for noticing that was a typo! The vanilla goes in with the wet ingredients only and not with the flour mixture. The recipe has been corrected. Hope you enjoyed it! 🙂
Today was my first time making these cookies with my students and they turned out really nice for a first batch. They were buttery, soft, and sweet…a little bit cracked but that was my fault because I left them in the oven for much longer than I should have LOL but this recipe is definitely a keeper 😋😋😋😋😋
Hi Sara, That’s fabulous to hear, thanks for letting me know how it went. They’re definitely fun to make together! 😋😋
Made these last night super easy to make. Although did not use regular jam so had a few spill overs take place. I wonder has anyone else used a mix of stevia and sugar? Not sure if that is why mine needed a bit longer in the oven. Also wonder how using butter flavored Driscoll would work.
Hi Patricia, Amazing to hear that and thanks for your comment. The stevia should make it take longer, but each oven is different 🙂 Enjoy!
Hi, i’m trying to concert the cups to grams. But is the recipe in UK cups or US cups? I would love to make these! Greetz from Holland!
Hi Sabine, Greetings! It’s U.S. cups, so 1 cup is 250 ml or 110 grams. Hope that helps and happy holidays! 🙂
can these cookies be placed on a tray with out sticking together, if they are placed on a tray with a variety of other cookies, if they have jam in the thumbprint
Hi Verna, Thanks for your review and yes, they won’t stick together on a tray. Happy holidays!
I never used cornstarch. While I have used raspberry and chocolate, my family love them with lemon curd.
Hi Linda, Thanks for your comment. The cornstarch makes the cookies softer and less prone to cracking. Lemon curd is a great idea and I’ll plan to add that to the recipe. Happy holidays! 🙂
No egg? I’m I missing something?
Hi there, Never put egg into thumbprint cookie dough, as it’s not needed. You can use it as a glaze on top if you like though 🙂
Desperately need great recipes that can be made weeks in advance, i.e. slice and bake dough and thumbprint cookie dough. Does this recipe freeze well as a dough? Or does it need to be baked first and filled later? Anxiously awaiting your response. Thanks and happy holidays!
Hi there, Thanks and hope you had a great holiday. In response to your question, all cookie doughs will free well if wrapped tightly in wax paper or parchment, and then placed in a ziptop bag to keep the moisture in. Hope that helps! 🙂
This recipe is astonishing. I’m an experienced Baker and have tried several versions of thumbprint cookies as they are my family’s favorite. This is hands down the best I’ve ever tried. Rich and buttery classic shortbread taste but such a light and crisp texture. Wonderful, thanks!
Hi Ann, Thanks so much for your review and glad you enjoyed! Best wishes for the holidays! 🙂
I owned a bakery, and have been baking for 40 years. This cookie recipe is awful!!! 3 TABLESPOONS of cornstarch….. I did it, tho I thought it was a big mistake. And it was a big mistake. They taste like a mouthful of stinging salt. Is there edits to be made?
Hi Niqui, Thanks for your comment, but I wonder if you’re thinking of another ingredient like baking powder or baking soda, which will impart a strange taste with that quantity.
Mixing 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1 cup of all-purpose flour is the standard way to make cake flour, which prevents the thumbprint cookies from cracking while baking. It won’t taste strange at all, and we’ve done it hundreds of times! 🙂