Classic Thumbprint Cookies with Jam and Pecans

Name: Classic Thumbprint Cookies with Jam and Pecans (Recipe)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 14 min
Total time: 29 min
Ingredients: 1 cup butter, softened (227g) (salted or unsalted is fine); ½ cup granulated sugar (100g); 2 egg yolks; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (281 g); ½ tsp salt (if using salted butter, you can skip this); 2 egg whites; 1 cup finely chopped pecans; ½ cup jam

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These thumbprint cookies with jam and pecans are buttery, a little soft, a little crisp, and filled with fruity jam in the center. The chopped pecan coating adds a mild, nutty crunch that balances the delicate cookie base. They’re easy to make and can be customized with your favorite jam. These cookies are a great option for holiday parties, cookie trays, or cozy baking days at home.

Why You’ll Love These Jam Thumbprint Cookies

They taste just as buttery and rich as shortbread, but with a slightly softer bite. The addition of an egg yolk in the cookie dough gives these cookies richness, a softer texture, and structure.
Simple ingredients and steps. These cookies use classic ingredients you probably already have at home, and they have no complicated instructions.
Fully customizable. You can put your own spin on these cookies by using different jams or even chocolate hazelnut spread. Or use different nuts (or no nuts) on the outside!
Great make-ahead cookie. These cookies store well and don’t get stale or lose their texture or taste right away. This means you can make them a day or two before your big holiday gathering or potluck without worrying that they won’t be fresh enough to be enjoyed.
Fun for kids to make. We were kids once, so we know that kids love playing with things, including food. These cookies are a fun way to encourage kids to help with baking. Let them make the little indentations in the cookies with teaspoons, or their thumbs or knuckles! It’s a great way to get them involved.

Hands holding up a thumbprint cookie with jam. The cookie is coated in chopped pecans and with raspberry jam in the middle.

A Note About Chilling the Dough

While we always chill our shortbread cookies before baking, we don’t always chill thumbprint cookies. Shortbread is all butter so not chilling the dough can cause the butter to leak out. While these cookies are very similar to shortbread, the egg yolks seem to help bind the ingredients together, making chilling the dough not as necessary in our experience. We might chill the dough in between batches of cookies, as not all of the dough will fit onto one baking tray, but we’ve discovered the results don’t vary too much between chilling and not chilling. In most cases, it can’t hurt the cookies to chill the dough, but it’s also not vital to this recipe. However, if your kitchen is super warm and humid, chilling might be a beneficial additional step.

If you always chill your dough and you’ve got room in your fridge, then go for it. Just don’t overdo it because if you chill your dough too much, it will be less pliable and may crack when you try to create the thumbprint indentations.

Several thumbprint cookies filled with raspberry and apricot jam on top of a wooden board.

Ingredients in These Classic Thumbprint Cookies with Jam

Flour – plain, all-purpose flour is best. Always measure it by weight or the spooned and leveled method.
Butter – you can use salted or unsalted. If you use salted butter, skip the additional salt.
Granulated sugar – you can use regular or organic.
Eggs – you’ll want to separate the yolks from the whites. Egg yolks are added to the cookie dough, while egg whites act as a coating for the cookies that helps the pecans stick.
Vanilla – a touch of vanilla adds sweetness and rounds out the flavor.
Salt – cookies need balance, so be sure to add salt to the dough if you’re using unsalted butter.
Pecans – use raw, unsalted pecans. You can buy them prechopped or chop them yourself into small pieces. They’ll toast up with the cookies in the oven.
Jam – you can use any kind of thick, fruity jam. For these thumbprint cookies, we used raspberry and apricot.

How to Make Thumbprint Cookies with Jam

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using an electric beater or a whisk, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy.
Mix in the egg yolks and vanilla, then mix in the flour and salt (if using).
Lightly beat together the egg whites in a separate bowl. They don’t need to be super fluffy, just mixed together so they’re no longer gloopy.
Place the finely chopped pecans into a small bowl.
Scoop about a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of cookie batter and roll it into a ball between your hands.
Dip the cookie dough ball into the egg whites, then dip it into the pecan pieces.

Grid of 4 images showing how thumbprint cookies are made. First showing the dough, then dough for one cookie rolled in a ball, then coating in egg white, then coating in chopped pecans.

Place about 8 cookies onto a baking sheet about 2 inches apart, and place the rest of the cookie dough into the fridge.

Cookie dough after rolling in a ball and coating in egg whites and chopped pecans, prior to indenting and filling with jam.

Using a teaspoon or your thumb or knuckle, make a small indentation into the center of each cookie. In each indentation, put up to a teaspoon of your favorite jam (depending on the size of the indentation).

Several thumbprint cookies with jam on a baking sheet, filled with either apricot or raspberry jam, prior to baking.

Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, then let them cool completely before eating.

Our Tips for Making the Best Thumbprint Cookies

Rachel and Emily from Cooking with Conks, standing side-by-side in green and yellow aprons.

Use a teaspoon instead of an actual thumb or knuckle to make the print. This will ensure that all of the indentations are the same size. It will also give you enough room to add up to 1 teaspoon of jam to each cookie.
Place the jam into the indentations before baking. This will give the jam a deeper, more caramelized flavor that soaks slightly into the cookie as it bakes.

Don’t make the cookies too big. This helps keep the ratio of cookie and jam more even, making sure each bite of cookie is perfectly balanced.
If the dough cracks when you make the indentations, press it back together. The egg yolks should help keep it from cracking too much, but if you encounter this problem, you can just press the dough back together to remove the cracks.
If you aren’t planning on baking a batch immediately, place the dough in the fridge. This recipe doesn’t require you to chill the dough before the first batch, but if you aren’t going to bake them right away, you may want to chill it to prevent it from getting too soft. We like to chill the dough in between batches of cookies too.

Thumbprint cookies coated chopped pecans and filled with apricot and raspberry jams.

Variations and Customizations

Change up the jam – we like making these with raspberry or apricot preserves, but you can use cherry, strawberry, or another thick jam flavor.
Make these into lemon thumbprint cookies – add lemon zest to the dough and fill these with lemon curd (we have a great recipe if you need one)!
Skip the nuts – if you’re allergic, you can skip the nuts and roll these in egg whites and then sprinkles instead. You can also skip the egg white coating and roll the cookie dough balls into granulated sugar before baking.
Use a different nut – if you don’t like pecans or can’t find them, walnuts are a great substitute. Or use finely chopped peanuts for a fun variation (PB & J, anyone?).
Fill the thumbprints with chocolate instead – use a chocolate spread or even chocolate hazelnut spread (and roll them in finely chopped hazelnuts) for a richer, chocolate-forward option. (If you want an even richer chocolate cookie option, check out our brownie cookies.)
Skip the eggs – if you’re allergic or just don’t have any, you can make these without eggs, which makes these basically shortbread. To keep them soft without the eggs, add 2 tbsp of cornstarch to the dough.

Serving and Storage Suggestions

We like to serve these as a perfect after-dinner or teatime snack, or alongside some of our other favorite sweet treats on a cookie or dessert tray.

To store these, place them in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to 4 days. You can also freeze cookies or cookie dough for up to 3 months.

Cookie broken in half showing a buttery center with raspberry jam dripping down the middle.

FAQs: Thumbprint Cookies with Jam

Of course! You can use sprinkles, sugar, or skip the coating entirely. If you decide to roll these in sugar instead of nuts, you should skip the egg white coating. The same goes for if you decide not to coat these in anything.

Yes. You can skip the eggs, which is more like traditional shortbread. If you want to make sure the cookies are soft enough to press your thumb or teaspoon measurer into without cracking, you can add up to 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the dough. This will soften them slightly, as an egg yolk does.

We recommend using thick fruit preserves, like raspberry, apricot, strawberry, blackberry, or cherry jam. Jams Stay away from thinner jellies, like grape, which don’t have fruit and are made from fruit juice instead.

If your butter is too warm, the cookies may spread too much in the oven. This recipe doesn’t require you to chill the dough if you’re baking a batch right away, but depending on how hot your kitchen is or how warm it is where you’re baking, chilling might help. We also usually chill our dough in between batches so that it doesn’t sit out too long at room temperature.

If you use too much jam, it can overflow in the oven. Try not to use more than a teaspoon in each cookie. If your indentations are smaller than a teaspoon, use less jam.

You can, but we find that the cookies are a little less flavorful that way. When you fill them with jam first and then bake them with it, the jam caramelizes a little and seeps slightly into the dough, giving it more flavor and depth.

Yes, you can make the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days. Once you’re ready to bake the cookies, let the dough rest at room temperature for about 15 minutes to soften enough that you can shape it into balls. Then whisk up 2 egg whites and finely chop the nuts, and coat each cookie dough ball into the egg whites, nuts, then make your indentations and fill with jam.

Several thumbprint cookies with jam filled with raspberry and apricot preserves on top of a wooden board.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened (227g) salted or unsalted is fine
½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (281 g)
½ tsp salt (if using salted butter, you can skip this)
2 egg whites
1 cup finely chopped pecans
½ cup jam

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using an electric beater or a whisk, cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy.
1 cup butter, softened (227g), ½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
Mix in the egg yolks and vanilla, then mix in the flour and salt (if using).
2 egg yolks, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (281 g), ½ tsp salt (if using salted butter, you can skip this)
Lightly beat together the egg whites in a separate bowl. They don’t need to be super fluffy, just mixed together so they’re no longer gloopy.
2 egg whites
Place the finely chopped pecans into a small bowl.
1 cup finely chopped pecans
Scoop about a tablespoon and a half of cookie batter and roll it into a ball between your hands.
Dip the cookie dough ball into the egg whites, then dip it into the pecan pieces.
Place about 8 cookies onto a baking sheet about 2 inches apart, and place the rest of the cookie dough into the fridge.
Using a teaspoon or your thumb or knuckle, make a small indentation into the center of each cookie. In each indentation, put up to a teaspoon of your favorite jam (depending on the size of the indentation). Don’t overfill, though. You don’t want the jam to leak out while it bakes.
½ cup jam
Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, then let them cool completely before eating.

Final Thoughts

There’s a reason thumbprint cookies with jam are a classic. They’re buttery and soft with slightly crisp edges, a nutty coating, and sticky, fruity jam in the middle. These cookies are also a holiday or easy-baking-day staple around here, and we hope you’ll add them to your next dessert party too. If you loved these thumbprint cookies, be sure to try our chocolate cherry almond shortbread cookies next. We’d also love to hear from you! Leave a comment below and tell us which jam you used!