Easy Strawberry Jam Cookies

cookies filled with jam and sprinkled with icing sugar on a baking sheet.

Perfect strawberry jam cookies: this is a quick and easy strawberry thumbprint cookie recipe that works out every time. No need to cream the butter and the sugar.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cookies with strawberry jam, strawberry jam cookies, strawberry jam thumbprint cookies, thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Chilling time 2 hours

Servings

Calories 66kcal

Author Adina

Equipment

Food processor OR stand/hand mixer with hook attachments
2 cookie sheets

Ingredients

240 g all-purpose flour 2 ¾ cups + 1 tablespoon, Note 1
70 g icing sugar 2/3 cup
1 pinch of salt
150 g unsalted butter cold, 1 ¼ sticks, Note 2
2 egg yolks large, Note 3
½ teaspoon vanilla extract optional
100 g strawberry jam smooth, ⅓ cup, Note 4
icing sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Cut the cold butter into small cubes.
Dry ingredients: Sift flour, icing sugar, and salt in the bowl of the food processor or stand mixer, and stir or pulse them a few times to combine.
Dough: Add butter, egg yolks, and vanilla extract (if using). Knead or pulse shortly until the dough comes together, don’t overmix. Turn the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and bring it in shape with your hands. Don’t knead it, press it together to form a ball.
Chill dough: Wrap the ball and chill it in the fridge for 1-2 hours. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and leave it on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes before making the cookies.
Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Form cookies: Break small pieces of dough and form small balls about the size of a smaller cherry, about 40 pieces. (Note 5).
Make wells: Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets leaving some space between them. Use your thumb or the back of a wooden spoon (works best) to make a small well in the middle of each cookie.
Fill: Stir the jam to soften it. Fill each well with about ½ teaspoon of jam (Note 6).
Bake the thumbprint strawberry cookies for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden. Allow them to cool on the trays for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cool, sprinkle them with a bit of icing sugar.

Notes

It’s best to use a digital kitchen scale to measure the ingredients; it guarantees the best results (Amazon affiliate link). Measuring flour and butter consistently using cups is close to impossible.
Butter with 82% fat is best (European style). Please don’t use lower-fat alternatives, they contain more water, and that will affect the results.
Use the egg whites for making meringue or macaroon cookies, or freeze them in a small freezer bag or container for future use.
A tart jam is best (lower sugar). You can use another flavor of your choice. Ensure the jam is smooth, without any seeds or fruit pieces.
I’ve weighed the balls; one weighed about 0.35 oz/ 10 g. If the strawberry jam cookies are about this size, you will have about 40 thumbprint cookies.
Alternatively, bake the cookies without the filling, and fill them with jam once baked. In this case, allow them to get a bit firmer while resting on the baking sheet (about 10 minutes). Fill them with jam (lemon curd, Nutella, etc) and let the filling set for 2-3 hours before transferring them to a container.

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