Classic Thumbprint Cookies
I have been on a serious manhunt for my “go-to” thumbprint cookie recipe. I’ve tried nearly a half-dozen recipes over the last month and just hadn’t found the one. Thumbprints are a cookie that I remember seeing on countless cookie trays around the holidays growing up. The ones filled with strawberry jam and rolled in nuts were always my favorite. I wanted a thumbprint that was buttery soft and a perfect ratio of dough and jam filling. Most of the recipes that I tried were too much like buttery shortbread that, while delicious, were too crumbly when you bit into them. I finally swapped out half of the butter for shortening and used only brown sugar instead of white sugar, and I ended up with exactly what I had hoped for when I began my thumbprint quest. I now have a huge batch of them in my freezer, ready for Christmas cookie trays!
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You can customize these cookies in a number of different ways to suit your tastes. Instead of rolling the cookies in sugar, you can dip them in some beaten egg whites, then roll them in chopped nuts or shredded coconut. The filling is totally up to you – I did a mixture of blackberry jam, strawberry jam, and apricot preserves. Surprisingly, my favorite is the apricot! You could also do chocolate, caramel, dulce de leche… there are tons of possibilities!
I’m thrilled to have come up with a favorite thumbprint recipe; it’s one that will be part of my holiday baking for years to come.
One year ago: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Two years ago: Sticky Toffee Pudding and Nutter Butter Snowmen
Three years ago: Fig and Walnut Biscotti
Four years ago: Nut Crescents
Classic Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup (102.5 g) vegetable shortening
- ½ cup (110 g) light brown sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (340 g) your favorite jam, jelly or preserve
- Granulated sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.
- Cream together the butter, shortening and brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes or until fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add the egg yolks, milk, vanilla and salt, and beat until well combined. Reduce the mixture speed to low and gradually add the flour, mixing until well blended.
- Measure about 2 teaspoons dough for each cookie and roll into balls. Place the granulated sugar in a small bowl and roll the balls of dough in the sugar to coat. Using the back of a teaspoon or your thumb, make a deep rounded indentation in the top of each cookie.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven. (At this point there was a little bit of melted butter underneath the cookies, but when they finished cooking it was all absorbed, and they were perfect!) It may be necessary to create the indentation once again with a spoon. Place about 1 teaspoon jam, jelly or preserves into the indentation of each cookie. Bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 1 month.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This may be blasphemy, but I just can’t do the jam/jelly thing. It extends to any and all baked stuff–hate jelly donuts, too. But thumbprint cookies are just so delicious. I can’t wait to try this recipe with buttercream in place of the jelly! :)
Thank you for sharing this! I tried so many recipes in an effort to replicate my grandma’s buttery apricot thumbprint cookies and I could never get it right. I’m excited to try this one!
Thank you for sharing your kitchen fun and life adventures with us. Your baking is incredible! I feel so fortunate to be able to read and try your recipes. Thank you so much!
if you want a good thumbprint cookie try Ina Garten’s recipe. it’s great!
well i just threw the whole batch down the disposal. turned out flat as a pancake. next time i will check ‘comments’ before i attempt a recipe. always nice to get ingredients correct. thanks
Looks like several people like me don’t cook with shortening. You said you tweeked the recipe to come up with the right mix. I’m wondering if margarine would work the same – or would that add too much water? I know margarine isn’t much better than shortening, but I just can’t buy that white stuff – haven’t in over 20 years. Thanks, Michelle!
Hi Martha, I have only used margarine once or twice in my baking (due to really, really old recipes that I didn’t want to tweak), so I’m not sure how it would work here. Although, I don’t really see much of a difference between the shortening and margarine, from a health perspective ;-)
Yum!
These would be so good filled with chocolate or Nutella too!
I love these cookies, they remind me of growing up too. Enjoy the holidays!
These look absolutely perfect! I’m definitely going for the apricot preserves in the center, but I also want to add some chocolate. Do you think a Hershey’s kiss in the center will work prior to baking? Or will it come out tasting dry? I want to add the chocolate into the baking process…Thanks.
Hi Maxine, I think the kiss will melt during baking, but if you don’t mind that, then it should work!
I love how pretty your thumbprint cookies are! The apricot ones are totally my favorite, too. :)
Yum. Cant wait to try. Thanks for sharing
HI. I would like to make these this weekend. Can you please give me a substitute for the shortening.
Thanks,
Dalia
Hi Dalia, Unfortunately, I cannot. As I mentioned in the write-up of the recipe above, I wasn’t pleased with the texture of the all-butter cookies, which is why I turned to shortening for half of the fat.
One of the best and most versatile cookie ever created. Yours look wonderful.
Can this recipe also be used with a Hershey’s Kiss in place of the jam?
Hi Susan, I think you could do that!
I’m so glad that perfect the classic thumbprint cookie – what a perfect Christmas cookie! These look delicious – you can see that the texture is just perfect!
These are some of my favorite holiday cookies as well :) I love the idea of dulce de leche.. I’ll have to give those a shot!
Could you incorporate lemon juice and zest to make it a lemony cookie with, say, a blackberry or raspberry jam? I really like that flavor pairing!
Hi Beth, I wouldn’t use lemon juice, as I wouldn’t incorporate more liquid into the recipe, but you could certainly add some zest!
I am for sure trying these!
They look great!
Thank you!
Like Helen, I’m wondering about the amounts of shortening, butter & flour. Seems the “fats” are too much given the flour amount.
Thanks.
I had the same question as well. When I saw the amount of fat I went right to the flour amount and was surprised. I love thumbprints but I am not sure I would want tihs much fat in a cookie.
Hi Teresa, My apologies for the typo; it should be ½ cup each butter and shortening. I have made the change in the recipe above. So sorry about that!
Thanks, Michelle.
Oh, yum! I’m snowed in today, so I’m making these! I may only have salted butter, though. I follow you on Pinterest, too. :)
One of my favorite cookies, ever and I totally agree with the apricot filling :) I like to roll mine in chopped walnuts in the end. I assume you mean 1 C butter or 1 C shortening??
Hi Rita, It is actually ½ cup butter and ½ cup shortening; I have corrected the typo above and apologize for the inconvenience!
I started the quest a couple of weeks ago for a jam thumbprint cookie recipe. I wanted one that included finely chopped nuts. I found a recipe that I thought would work but it involved the egg white step to ensure the nuts would adhere to the cookie. I was not happy with the result. The egg whites do not enhance the texture of the finished product, in my opinion. I think I will try your approach but stick with butter only, and hope that enough nuts adhere without the egg whites. I love your site–I always enjoy reading what you have to say, even if I cannot keep up with all of the baking!
Looks yummy but I am also wondering about the 1 cup butter and 1 cup shortening seems like a lot!
Hi Adrianne, You are correct; it should be ½ cup of each. I have made the correction in the recipe above. So sorry for that!
I just love the classic thumbprint cookies! Yours look so cute and delicious!
What timing! I was planning on making thumbprint cookies to bring to an event tonight, and this recipe looks perfect!
Oh God, not an auto correction again! Shortening, not shorten ending! But I know you wouldn’t have used shortening in this recipe unless you absolutely had to :)
I was literally just heading into the kitchen to bake these when I looked closer and saw that it had shorten ending in it! Kind of disappointed…but that’s okay.
Ooh, I like the brown sugar swap!
The cookies look so yummy! I’m really wanting to make these for the holiday season. But did I read that right that the recipe lists 1 cup of butter + 1 cut of shortening for 2 cups of flour? It just seems like high fat/liquid content for only 2 cups of flour. Thanks.
Hi Helen, Thank you for catching that typo; it should be ½ cup of each. I have changed it above.
Perfect! I’m excited to try this recipe! I have a container of dulce de leche that I’ve been dying to use.
When you choose the print option, it still prints 1 cup each…
Hi Jennifer, I just clicked print and the correct ½ cup each shows up. Maybe try again and make sure the cookies are cleared on your browser.
Ha ha at “cookies” ….
I started making these without thinking about the fat to flour ratio at all! (Kinda in a fog today anyway!)) When I got to reading about rolling the cookies in a ball, I knew something was wrong. Checked out your blog again and saw that you had corrected it! So I just started adding more of this and more of that….not sure my cookie tastes anything like it was supposed to, but my husband really likes it!! ;-) Just thought I’d share my funny day!
a bit upset here…, I just made these cookies and the dough is so soft, I figured there was something wrong, but I put the dough in the fridge anyway to harden up. So now I see the recipe is WRONG that I prepared, and i will have to throw it all out. UGH!!!
Well you could have just added some more stuff to it like Nancy did. No need to get pissy she made a mistake. I am sure you have before in your life.
Thumbprint cookies are probably my favourite kind of cookie! They are so adorable xo