Raspberry Almond Thumbprints

These raspberry almond thumbprints are buttery, soft, flavored with almond, and filled with a sweet raspberry jam. I drizzled a vanilla icing over these raspberry thumbprints for the perfect Christmas cookie. These recipes are a sneak peak from my cookbook, Beginner’s Baking Bible!

These little melt in your mouth cookies are exactly what your holiday needs. Or maybe your Tuesday. Sunday. Long afternoon. 

You get my drift here friend? Make these now. Have them with cup of tea. Coffee. Have zero regrets after.

Because when you combine buttery shortbread, almond, and raspberry jam you get cookie bliss. 

And these are sneak peek to my new cookbook coming out – Beginner’s Baking Bible (<–you can pre-order now!!) Sorry my excitement is bubbling over.  This was one of those easy recipes that I kept dreaming about after I ate them all   gave them away.

Ingredients Needed:

These cookies use all the classic ingredients you probably have in your pantry already with the addition of the sprinkles (I mean hello, they re funfetti so we gotta add the fun) and the white chocolate chips.

• Unsalted butter – You want to use softened unsalted butter. Salted butter can varying amounts of salt so I always recommend using unsalted. And be sure it’s properly softened. Here are 3 ways to soften your butter quickly.
• Granulated sugar – These cookies are sweetened with granulated white sugar. 
• Egg Yolk – You want just one room temperature egg yolk to help bind the cookie dough together. For help on separate your eggs cleanly, read how to separate eggs (6 ways!).
• Extracts – I used both vanilla and almond flavor in this cookie. The little bit of almond flavoring pairs beautifully with raspberry jam. 
• Dry Ingredients – This raspberry almond thumbprint recipe uses all purpose flour and a little bit of salt. Be sure to measure your flour correctly so you get a soft texture 
• Raspberry Jam – You don’t need much raspberry jam to fill these cookies with. The key is filling them before baking, otherwise the cookie can puff making it hard to fill after. 

How To Make These Raspberry Thumbprints – Step By Step

Step One: Make Your Cookie Dough

You want to start by creaming your butter and sugar together in your mixer. You want to cream for about 2 minutes on medium high until light and fluffy. 

Then add your egg yolk and extracts together. Be sure to scrape down the bowl. Sometimes some unincorporated mixture gets stuck at the bottom of your mixing bowl. 

Then stir in your flour and salt until just combined. Be sure to not keep mixing once the flour has been incorporated. 

Step Two: Shape Your Cookies

Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop you want to scoop the cookies into 1 inch balls. Roll each cookie into a ball using your hands and place on the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. 

With your thumb or the back of a ¼  teaspoon, dent each cookie in the center.

Then place a 1/4 teaspoon jam into each indent.

Step Three: Bake And Glaze

Last step is making an easy glaze to put on top. The glaze is made with just three ingredients and can be drizzled on top of the cookies.

Once they are baked and cooled, you can glaze them with a simple vanilla icing made with powdered sugar. This step is totally optional. But totally worth it.

Recipe Tips:

• Measure your flours correctly. Too much flour can result in a dense cookie. Don’t just scoop the flour directly into your measuring cup. This can result in a major over measurement! After you have spooned the flour in, then use a knife to level off the flour. Don’t tap the sides of the measuring cup, or pack your flour down. Both can also result in too much flour. You can read a full tutorial on how to measure flour here. 
• Butter softened to room temperature. Does the temperature of the butter matter? It matter so much this quote was added to end of the recipe in the cookbook.”Butter is like the concrete you use to pour the foundation of a building. So it’s very important to get it right: the temperature, the texture, and aeration” So in other words…yea it matters. It matters so much I did an entire post on how butter temperature affects cookies.  The butter needs to be softened to room temperature, which mean you can slightly indent your thumb in the butter but shouldn’t easily smoosh all the way through. If you forget to take your butter out in time, cut the butter into small chunks and leave out at room temperature. It will soften much faster this way. When you cream the butter and sugars together it’s also important to let this happen for a whole 5 minutes to allow enough air into the batter and helps leavens the cookies. For 3 quick ways to soften your butter, you can read this post.
• Use a small cookie scoop for best results – A cookie scoop will give you all perfectly even sized cookies which means they will all bake evenly.
• Fill with jam before baking – Trying to fill them after can be tricky. So fill before you bake and keep it easy peasy.
• If your cookies spread too much.. – Try chilling the cookie dough. Any unused dough can be kept covered in the fridge. Or after they come out of the oven, take a spoon and press the edges back in toward the middle. 
• Sticky dough? If while shaping the cookies, the dough is sticking to your hands, lightly dust your hands with flour. And when indenting the center of the cookies, lightly flour your thumb, or a teaspoon, and press down into the center.

Cookie FAQ’s

More cookie recipes

• Lemon Thumbprint Cookies
• Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
• Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
• Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
• Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Need More Cookie Help?

I get it. Cookies can be challenging. So I created this fun free email series – Bake Your Best Cookies Ever. It’s 5 days of awesome cookie tips, secrets, and recipes delivered right to your inbox. No gimmicks. Pinky swear. Just pure cookie fun. 

Raspberry Almond Thumbprints

These buttery, soft cookies are a classic shortbread dough that gets rolled and indented with your thumb and filled with a sweet raspberry jam. You can really use any jam to fill these cookies with. The key to this recipe is filling the cookies before you bake them.

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 14 cookies

Calories: 137kcal

Author: Heather Perine

Ingredients

For the cookies

• ▢ ½ cup (1 stick, 113 g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated white sugar
• ▢ 1 egg yolk room temperature
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ▢ 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (135 g) all purpose flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon table salt
• ▢ 3 1/2 teaspoons raspberry jam

For the vanilla glaze

• ▢ 1/2 cup (60 g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 1 tablespoon milk
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

For the cookie dough

• Preheat and prepare cookie sheets. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper (or a silicone baking mat).
• Cream butter and sugar. Beat butter and granulated sugar on medium high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• Add egg yolk and extracts. Add the egg yolk, mixing until combined. Add extracts and mix just until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour and salt and mix just until combined.
• Scoop and fill the cookies. Using a tablespoon scoop the cookies into 1 inch balls. Roll each cookie into a ball using your hands and place on the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. With your thumb or the back of a ¼ teaspoon, dent each cookie in the center, and put ¼ teaspoon jam into each indent.
• Bake and cool the cookies. Bake for 15-17 minutes until light golden brown on the bottoms. Allow to cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes, before moving to a cooling rack to completely cool.

For the vanilla glaze

• Mix all ingredients for glaze in a small bowl. If it’s too thick, add a bit more milk. If it’s too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar. Drizzle over cookies once they are cooled. 

Notes

• Tools:  Cookies Sheets | Oven Thermometer |Kitchen-Aid Mixer |Cookie Scoop | silicon baking mat | spatula | cooling rack | cookie spatula
• Make ahead and storage:You can store these covered at room temperature for 3 days. Or store in the refrigerator for 6 days.
  To freeze unbaked: Scoop the cookies onto a cookie sheet, and freeze solid for up to 2 months. Then place into a sealable plastic bag. You can bake frozen, without thawing, but add on a few extra minutes of baking time.
  To freeze baked (without glaze): Allow the cookies to cool completely then store in an airtight container. I like to store flat, with layers of parchment or wax paper between layers.  Then when ready to eat, allow to thaw in the refrigerator. And glaze as normal.
• Measure your flours correctly. Too much flour can result in a dense cookie. Don’t just scoop the flour directly into your measuring cup. This can result in a major over measurement! After you have spooned the flour in, then use a knife to level off the flour. Don’t tap the sides of the measuring cup, or pack your flour down. Both can also result in too much flour. You can read a full tutorial on how to measure flour here. 
• Butter softened to room temperature. Does the temperature of the butter matter? It matter so much this quote was added to end of the recipe in the cookbook.”Butter is like the concrete you use to pour the foundation of a building. So it’s very important to get it right: the temperature, the texture, and aeration” So in other words…yea it matters. It matters so much I did an entire post on how butter temperature affects cookies.  The butter needs to be softened to room temperature, which mean you can slightly indent your thumb in the butter but shouldn’t easily smoosh all the way through. If you forget to take your butter out in time, cut the butter into small chunks and leave out at room temperature. It will soften much faster this way. When you cream the butter and sugars together it’s also important to let this happen for a whole 5 minutes to allow enough air into the batter and helps leavens the cookies. For 3 quick ways to soften your butter, you can read this post.
• Use a small cookie scoop for best results – A cookie scoop will give you all perfectly even sized cookies which means they will all bake evenly.
• Fill with jam before baking – Trying to fill them after can be tricky. So fill before you bake and keep it easy peasy.
• If your cookies spread too much.. – Try chilling the cookie dough. Any unused dough can be kept covered in the fridge. Or after they come out of the oven, take a spoon and press the edges back in toward the middle.
• Sticky dough? If while shaping the cookies, the dough is sticking to your hands, lightly dust your hands with flour. And when indenting the center of the cookies, lightly flour your thumb, or a teaspoon, and press down into the center.

Nutrition

Calories: 137kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 85mg | Potassium: 9mg | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 220IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.5mg

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