Almond Thumbprint Cookies

These almond thumbprint cookies are melt-in-your-mouth tender and positively addicting.

They are made from buttery shortbread cookie dough that's rolled in roasted almonds, filled with jam or fruit preserves, and then drizzled with almond glaze. They are delicate and jewel like, and one of my all-time favorite cookies.

My Grandma was the undisputed Queen of Homemade Cookies. Grandma's cookies were a staple of my childhood that I largely took for granted. She always had several different kinds in the freezer and rare was the visit when she didn't pull some out for us to nibble on (ok... devour) while we talked.

Every Christmas, we all received a tin filled to bursting with several different kinds of small, bite-sized cookies. We all had our favorites. My kids loved her Pecan Sand Tarts with a chocolate kiss in the center.

I loved them all, but her jam filled thumbprint cookies were my favorite. They were tender, buttery and so pretty, with little dollops of jam in the center so that they glittered like jewels.

What Are Thumbprint Cookies?

Thumbprint cookies originated in Sweden, where they are called Hallongrotta, which is Swedish for "raspberry cave." Australia has a similar cookie, which they like to call "Jam Drops".

Here in the United States, they are called thumbprint cookies because they are made by pressing your thumb into little balls of cookie dough to create an impression that can be filled with jam, caramel, or chocolate.

Thumbprint cookies are usually made from shortbread dough, as they are in this recipe, which results in soft, tender cookies that are so buttery they practically melt in your mouth.

In this thumbprint cookie recipe, I really wanted the flavor of almonds to shine through, so in addition to all-purpose flour, the shortbread dough for these cookies includes a bit of super fine almond flour.

If you can't find super fine ground almond flour, no worries. Just use regular almond flour. Put the almond flour in a food processor along with ½ cup of the all-purpose flour and process for a minute or two. The extra grinding will keep the almond flour from interfering with the soft, tender texture of these cookies.

To add even more almond flavor, I added a touch of almond extract to the dough and then rolled the balls of dough in chopped roasted almonds before baking. I love this for two reasons:

• The roasted almonds on the outside of the cookie give you an immediate burst of toasted nuttiness
• The almonds also add a nice contrast in texture - crunchy on the outside, tender buttery shortbread on the inside

What kind of jam or preserves is used to fill thumbprint cookies?

You can use any kind of jam or preserves you like in Thumbprint cookies. My grandma used several different kinds of jam when she made a batch of thumbprint cookies, and all the different colors looked so pretty.

The thumbprint cookies you see pictured here are filled with homemade peach preserves. They were baked in August, when Colorado peaches are in season, after having made several batches of preserves.

Aside from slathering homemade bread or buttermilk biscuits with peach preserves, these thumbprint cookies are my favorite way to use it.

My other favorite thumbprint cookie filling is strawberry rhubarb jam, another summer staple that I make a point to make every year.

But you can use literally any kind of jam or preserves you like to make thumbprint cookies, homemade or store bought. The important thing is that the jam or preserves you choose is not thin or runny. The thicker and frutier the better.

How to Make Thumbprint Cookies:

The dough for these cookies is a basic shortbread dough, which means there is a high percentage of butter to flour and no leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda.

1. To make the dough, start by beating butter with sugar

In lieu of baking powder or baking soda, shortbread dough relies on air trapped in butter to keep the cookies from being overly heavy. The jagged surface of the sugar crystals digs into the butter as you beat them together. This creates tiny pockets of air trapped in the molecules of fat.

2. Beat in an egg and an egg yolk, then add flour and salt

Once the flour has been added, it's important to mix gently, just until the ingredients are combined. Mixing flour into dough activates the gluten proteins that give baked goods their structure.

A little structure is good. But, over-mixing leads to cookies that are tough and dense - the opposite of the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness we want in a thumbprint cookie. So, stir gently.

3. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days

Do you absolutely HAVE to refrigerate this dough? Yes, you do. It's important to firm up all that butter again so that when the cookies bake they'll keep their cute little thumbprint shape.

If the dough is warm, the butter will spread and leak out, resulting in cookies that are flat and greasy.

4. Shape, fill, bake, and glaze the cookies

When the dough is well chilled, shape it into tablespoon size balls, then use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each one. Dip the tops of the cookies in finely chopped roasted almonds and line them up on a parchment covered baking sheet.

Fill the little indentation in each cookie with a dollop of jam or preserves, and then bake them at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool, then mix some powdered sugar, half and half, and almond extract together to make a glaze. Drizzle the cookies with the glaze and let them rest until the glaze has set.

Or, don't let them rest, and do what we do in this house - eat them straight away.

How do you store thumbprint cookies?

These little thumbprint cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. They will, in fact, last longer than this, but after three days they start to taste a little bit stale.

They can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

If you are keeping them in a container in which the cookies need to be stacked on top of each other, lay a piece of parchment paper between the layers of cookies to keep them from sticking together.

These Thumbprint Cookies are a Building Block Recipe

Building block recipes are tried-and-true recipes that I consider foundational to great home baking. They are the kind of recipes I come back to over and over again, sometimes baking them as is, but often using them as a jumping off point to create something new. > Scroll through all Building Block recipes.

I will say that as much as I love this recipe, they don't hold a candle to my Grandma's thumbprint cookies. How could they? They weren't baked by her.

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!

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