You’ll love these buttery, melt-in-your-mouth almond thumbprint cookies filled with just the right amount of jam in these Blackberry Jam Cookies. Rolling the cookies in sugar and drizzling in almond icing takes them to the next level!
Thumbprint cookies are a classic for a good reason. Not only do they look really striking with the jewel-like center, but they really just melt in your mouth. They have that characteristic butter cookie crumble that I adore. Similar to a shortbread cookie, these cookies have very little for leaveners or structure.
Ingredients
There’s one difference here an in a traditional thumbprint, these cookies have almond flour included. Not only is the nutty flavor a great compliment to the berries in the jam, but it also brings a bit of texture to the party.
- All-purpose and almond flours. I used a combination of traditional and almond flours to get the texture just right. A little added almond extract amps up the flavor.
- Baking powder. This isn’t standard in butter cookies, but I liked the slight lift it added to the final texture.
- Butter. And lots of it. Use a quality butter!
- Light brown sugar and granulated sugar. I tested this recipe with all brown sugar, but they were a little flimsy. The white sugar helps to add some stability.
- Turbinardo Sugar. These cookies get a coating of turbinado sugar before baking. You can also use decorating sugar or another coarse sugar. A coarse sugar really gives a nice outer sparkle and crunch to the cookies. I tested these without a sugar coating and I tried with a cinnamon sugar. Without any sugar was just not as exciting as the sugared version. The cinnamon sugar overpowered the almond flavor – as much as I love cinnamon sugar, this wasn’t the right time or right place for it!
How to Make Thumbprint Cookies
These blackberry jam cookies are a true thumbprint cookie, meaning we literally need to make a well in the dough with our thumbs to hold all that lovely jam.
Once your cookie dough is made, it’s better to shape then chill the cookies. It’s so much easier to work with because it’s still soft and malleable. If you chill first, the dough cracks when creating the wells.
Once your cookies are shaped, it’s time to chill, and I mean, really chill. Butter cookies have the natural tendency to spread quite a bit and the jam can seep out into a soft cookie. Freezing the cookies for at least an hour is the best way to go to really prevent too much spread and jam bleed.
Preparing the Jam
As an extra measure to combat any jam bleed, I also strain extra liquid where possible. While the cookie dough is chilling, I briefly warm the jam up and set it over a strainer to allow the thinner liquid to drain away and leaving only the thicker jam. As a plus, slightly warmed jam is much easier to spoon into the wells!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, absolutely! Use your favorite jam flavors, or even get crazy – use lemon curd, ganache, salted caramel — the options are flavor combinations are endless!
The mostly likely answer is the cookies weren’t chilled enough. But it could also be too much butter compared flour. I alway recommend using a kitchen scale and the gram measurements for baking recipes because scooping and measuring flour because it’s very inaccurate.
I love turbinado sugar combined with the brown sugar in the cookies because they really compliment each other. But you can use any coarse sugar, or even granulated sugar, successfully.
These thumbprints are very fragile warm from the oven, I really recommend waiting until completely cool. In a hurry? Pop them in a fridge to speed up the cooling.
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container.
I don’t recommend freezing filled/baked cookies. The unbaked cookies can be wrapped and frozen for up to 3 months!
Looking for other amazing party favorite recipes? Try these:
Blackberry Jam Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 240 g all-purpose flour
- 63 g almond flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 226 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 70 g light brown sugar pack
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 90 g turbinado sugar for rolling
- 170 g blackberry preserves or jam
Almond Drizzle
- 113 g confectioners’ sugar
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, almond flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside240 g all-purpose flour, 63 g almond flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- In the bowl of a stand-mixer or with a hand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed.226 g unsalted butter, 70 g light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Mix in egg yolk and almond extract. Slowly add flour mixture until dough comes together.1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon almond extract
- Scoop standard cookie scoops (1 1/2 tablespoon) onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Roll dough between your palms into a ball, then roll in turbinado sugar. Using thumb, press an indent into the center of the cookie, careful to not go through to the bottom.90 g turbinado sugar
- Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour.
- While dough is freezing, preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a second sheet pan with parchment.
- Heat jam for 30 seconds in microwave, place in a strainer over a bowl and let stand while dough is chilling. Discard juice.170 g blackberry preserves or jam
- Once chilled, remove dough from freezer, evenly distribute between two sheet pans and fill indents with jam.
- Bake 14-16 minutes until edges are lightly golden brown. Cool on sheet pan 10 minutes before moving to cooling rack. Cool completely before enjoying to allow cookies to set.
- Almond Drizzle: Once cookies are completely cooled, whisk together all ingredients for the almond drizzle. Drizzle with spoon over cookies.113 g confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
Notes
- Store baked cookies in airtight container.
- Any flavor jam may be substituted.
Disclaimer: We test all recipes using the metric weights shown, we cannot guarantee outcomes when switching to US measurements.
