Easy Thumbprint Cookies

Easy Thumbprint Cookies made with chocolate cookie dough and fruit jam. Beautiful and easy-to-make holiday cookie, perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Today I am sharing a very easy thumbprint cookies recipe. These simple cookies are made with chocolate cookie dough and are perfect for the upcoming holidays: Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  Other easy holiday cookie recipes that I love are amaretto almond shortbread cookies and cranberry noels.

I love how festive these thumbprint cookies look, especially if you fill them with different types of jam or fruit preserves. For instance, on these photos you can see that I used apricot preserves and strawberry preserves, which created cookies with two distinctly different fillings and colors (orange and red).

The chocolate cookie dough produced a very soft and buttery cookie, which is then filled with jam.

Baking tips

• To make sure that the cookies turn out tall and not flatten out during baking, use softened unsalted butter (not melted!) – take it out of the refrigerator an hour prior to preparing the cookies and it should soften to the right consistency (not liquid, and still keeping its brick shape).
• Then, after you’ve made the cookie dough, roll each individual cookie into 1 inch ball, press a well into a center of each cookie using your fingers or back of a wooden spoon. Then freeze these raw cookies for about 30 minutes.

How to bake thumbprint cookies

Bake these cookies in the preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and after 7 minutes of baking take them out and press well into a center of each cookie again to make it more pronounced. Then continue baking for 5 more minutes.

I want to emphasize again that it’s very important that you use softened butter (not melted), form cookie dough into cookie balls and keep them in the freezer for 30 minutes right before baking. Otherwise, you will get a flat cookie.

I love these colorful treats! These thumbprint cookies will look gorgeous on a holiday cookie tray, don’t you think?

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Easy Thumbprint Cookies with Fruit Jam

Prep Time

25 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

Easy Thumbprint Cookies made with chocolate cookie dough and fruit jam. Perfect holiday cookie.  Make beautiful addition to Christmas cookie tray. 

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 40 cookies

Calories: 112 kcal

Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 oz unsalted butter , room temperature (let the butter from refrigerator sit on the counter for about an hour or so), not melted but softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract pure
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves or jam
• 1/2 cup strawberry preserves or jam

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine together flour, cocoa powder, and salt and mix.
2. In a separate bowl, using electric mixer, beat softened butter and granulated sugar on high speed until light in color and fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla – continue beating for a couple more minutes. Turn off the electric mixer, add flour-cocoa-salt mixture and then continue beating on low speed until well-combined but without over mixing.
3. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Press a well into a center of each cookie ball using your fingers or a back of a wooden spoon. Then freeze these raw cookies for about 30 minutes.

4. Bake in the preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and after 7 minutes of baking, take the cookies out and press well into a center of each cookie with the end of a wooden spoon again to make it more pronounced. Then, return the baking sheet to the oven and continue baking for 5-7 more minutes.

5. Let cookies cool completely. Using a small spoon, put jam/preserves filling into each thumbprint cookie.

Recipe Notes

Recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart

Nutrition Facts

Easy Thumbprint Cookies with Fruit Jam

Amount Per Serving

Calories 112 Calories from Fat 36

% Daily Value*

Fat 4g6%

Saturated Fat 3g19%

Cholesterol 20mg7%

Sodium 20mg1%

Potassium 27mg1%

Carbohydrates 16g5%

Sugar 8g9%

Protein 1g2%

Vitamin A 155IU3%

Vitamin C 0.4mg0%

Calcium 6mg1%

Iron 0.5mg3%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.