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!!
Take softened butter, sugar, almond extract and vanilla in a stand mixer bowl. Attach the paddle attachment and beat it until it is light and fluffy.
Add flour and salt. Run the mixer again until the dough comes together.
Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place them on a cookie tray by spacing 2 inches apart.
Make an indentation using a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon.
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.
Bake in preheated oven for around 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden from the bottom. Let the shortbread thumbprint cookies cool in the pan itself for 5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.
Notes
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 the 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 like Caramel, chocolate ganache, lemon curd, dulce de leche, and nutella.