Rich, buttery, and sweet, these shortbread thumbprint cookies are a classic cookie recipe to bake this holiday season. The best part is they can be filled with any flavor you like. Raspberry jam, nutella, dulce de leche – possibilities are endless!!

Shortbread thumbprint cookies in a plate and a few more in the back on a cooling rack.

❤️ About This Recipe

Made with simple ingredients: These eggless shortbread thumbprint cookies require 7 pantry staple ingredients only. All of them are easily available in your pantry right now.

Taste & Texture:

Soft, rich, buttery, and perfectly sweet shortbread cookies
A hint of almond flavor from the almond extract.
A sweet and tangy taste from the jam in the center.
The top layer of the jam gets slightly caramelized during baking providing a nice chewy texture.

🧾 Ingredients For Eggless Thumbprint Cookies

Here is the pic of the ingredients you’ll need to make these eggless thumbprint cookies.

Shortbread thumbprint cookie ingredients in bowl and spoons with labels.

Butter: Always use good quality unsalted butter so I can control the salt in the recipe. Use room-temperature softened butter.
Sugar: White sugar is used.
Almond & Vanilla extract: You can simply use just one. But both together give a good flavor.
Flour: You’ll need plain all purpose flour for this eggless thumbprint cookies.
Jam: I have used seedless raspberry jam. You can use your choice of any jam like apricot, strawberry, peach, etc.

👩‍🍳 How To Make Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies?

1) Take softened butter, sugar, almond extract and vanilla in a stand mixer bowl.

2) Attach the paddle attachment and beat it until it is light and fluffy.

3) Add flour and salt.

4) Run the mixer again until the dough comes together.

Collage of 4 images showing beating butter, sugar, adding flour and making a cookie dough.

5) Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place them on a cookie tray by spacing 2 inches apart.

6) Make an indentation using a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon.

7) Fill the indentation of each cookie ball with jam. The jam will shrink as you bake so make sure to add enough.

Now chill the cookie tray in the fridge for around 30 minutes. If you skip chilling the cookies balls then cookies will spread a lot more.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) for at least 10 minutes. If needed line a baking sheet with parchment paper and keep it ready.

8) Bake in preheated oven for around 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden from the bottom. Let the cookies cool in the pan itself for 5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

Collage of 4 images showing shaping, making indentation, filling with jam and baked cookies.

💭 Expert Tips For Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Always chill the shaped cookies and not the cookie dough. Making a neat indentation in the chill cookie ball is hard (impossible).
Do not skip chilling the shaped cookies otherwise, they will spread too much in the oven while baking.
Fill jam right to the edge (or a slightly more) in the indentation as the jam will shrink or reduce during baking.
For a variation, you can drizzle the icing sugar glaze on cooled cookies.
Try other filling options than jam
- Caramel
- Chocolate ganache
- Eggless lemon curd
- Dulce de leche
- Nutella

🥣 Storage Instructions For Eggless Thumbprint

Shortbread thumbprint cookies stay fresh for 5-6 days at room temperature in an airtight container.
You can freeze the baked cookies and they stay good for up to 1 month. Don’t forget to keep the parchment paper between the layers of the cookie for mess-free freezing.
Shaped cookie balls with indentations can be frozen for up to 3 months. At the time of baking, fill the indentation with jam and bake as directed (plus a couple of more minutes for frozen cookies).

Eggless thumbprint cookies on a cooling rack with napkin under the rack.

Check Out Other Christmas Cookies

Did you try this eggless shortbread thumbprint cookies recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.