Show me a child who DOESN’T like to stick their fingers in anything food-like and I’ll show you a moon made of cheese. After all, kids like to touch and play with their food, right? That’s why these adorable jam thumbprint cookies are such a brilliant little bake to do with the kids.
You can literally say “Go for it, kids! Go ahead and stick your fingers in and make a dent in every single one!”
Consequently, you know the best part? You get to be the favourite parent for the rest of the week, for allowing them to play with their food. That’s a win – win, right? 😆
Remember too that little fingers are… well… little! Therefore, this means there will need to be some wiggling them around to make the dent bigger too. Gotta make the dent big enough for all that yummy jam to fit in! 🤤
And if it all goes wrong, and the dent ends up becoming a hole, the solution is easy: you can just roll the ball up and start all over again! For me, the most important thing when baking with kids is not getting stressed.
This shortbread recipe is brilliant for kids to make and measure out independently. Plus, it really is versatile for sharing so many skills: rolling and cutting or balling and indenting. Every parent needs a recipe like this to call on for baking with their little angels 😊
Oh, in the same vein, if you love shortbread as much as I do, do check out our chocolate dipped shortbread from a previous post. Yum!
I hope this jam thumbprint cookies recipe brings you and your little ones as much fun and laughter as it has brought my family over the years!
Happy baking, my friends. As always, thanks for stopping by!
😊 x
Jam Thumbprint Cookies | Baking With Kids
30
servings20
minutes8
minutes30
minutesWonderful little morsels of shortbread and jam!
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Ingredients
200 g ¾ cup + 2 tbsp) unsalted butter at room temperature
100 g (½ cup) caster sugar
1-2 tsp almond extract (see note)
300 g ( 1 cups + ¾ cup + 2 tbsp) plain (all purpose) flour
Smooth jam (I used raspberry)
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/350F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.
- Cream your butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. You can do this using a stand mixer, electric hand mixer or even just by hand! Depends how hard you want to work your kids! 😉
- Add in your flavouring of choice and mix in to combine. Sift in flour and mix to combine completely.
- Shape your mixture into balls using 1 tbsp of dough as a guide (see note below). Place them on your baking sheet, spacing about 2″ apart.
- Using your thumb (see note below), make a dent in your cookie balls, wiggling them around a little to widen the dent. Fill the dent fairly generously with jam. The jam should come a little above the top of the cookie, as it will melt down into the cookie a little as it bakes.
- Bake your cookies for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are just starting to brown on the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before eating. Be very careful: hot jam will burn!
Recipe Video
Notes
- We love almond flavours in our home. But if you prefer, you can stick with vanilla and just use 1tsp vanilla extract instead.
- I used a tablespoon measure to be more accurate with measuring out our cookie dough, because we wanted to be quite precise. But you could just eyeball it too. Just make sure all your cookie balls are of similar size so they all cook evenly.
- To make the thumbprint in your cookies, you can use your thumb, of course. You could also use your index finger or even the back of a measuring spoon if you find those easier to work with. You will need to wiggle a finger around, or if using a spoon possibly make the hole a little deeper, depending on your cookies and tools.
- Don’t forget that jam fresh from the oven is very HOT and will remain so well after the cookie feels cool. As tempting as it may be, please be careful not to burn yourself by eating them too soon!
I made these cookies..using strawberry jam..so good!
Fabulous! So glad you’ve enjoyed them, Debbie!