Easy Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies Recipe with Almond and Shortbread Crumb
These raspberry thumbprint cookies are a buttery almond shortbread with a bright, jammy raspberry center, no eggs and no mixer required. They take about 55 minutes start to finish including a chill, make about 22 cookies, and the dough comes together with just a pastry cutter or your fingers.
Raspberry and almond are one of those pairings that just works, and these cookies lean all the way into it. The base is a simple shortbread, cut together the old-fashioned way instead of creamed, so there’s no mixer to pull out and no egg to crack. That also means the dough is a little more delicate than a classic butter cookie, which is exactly why people run into trouble with cracked edges or crumbly dough that won’t hold together.
I love how forgiving this one actually is once you know the two or three things that trip people up. The dough looks like it’s not going to work right up until the moment it does, and the jam center is the easiest part of the whole recipe.
If your dough feels dry and crumbly right now, don’t add more butter yet — keep reading, because that’s usually not actually a problem.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Buttery almond shortbread crumb with a jammy, bright center
- No eggs and no mixer — just a bowl and a pastry cutter or your hands
- Freezes well both as unbaked dough and as finished cookies
- Easy to swap the jam flavor without changing anything else
- A cookie tray standout that looks fancier than the effort it takes
- Naturally keeps its shape with a short chill, no fussy technique required
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes — keeping it cold is what gives these their short, crumbly shortbread texture
- 2/3 cup (80g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam, stirred smooth
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
Almond extract: This is what gives the shortbread its signature flavor alongside the raspberry. Vanilla extract works as a swap, but the cookies lose that classic raspberry-almond pairing — if you have almond extract, use it here.
Seedless jam: Seedless raspberry jam fills and spreads more neatly than jam with seeds or chunks. Jam with seeds works fine flavor-wise, it just looks a little rougher in the well. Stir the jam smooth before filling so it spoons in evenly instead of clumping.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Whisk the Dry Ingredients
Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl until evenly combined. This just takes a few seconds, but it keeps the salt from clumping in one spot later.
Step 2: Cut In the Cold Butter and Almond Extract
Add the cold butter cubes, powdered sugar, and almond extract to the flour. Use a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers to work the butter into the flour until it looks crumbly and uneven, with some pea-sized butter bits still visible. The dough will look like it’s not coming together at this point — that’s normal for a cut-in shortbread, not a sign you need more butter. Keep working it just until it holds together when you squeeze a handful; overworking it here is what makes the baked cookies tough instead of short and tender.
Step 3: Roll Into Balls
Scoop and roll the dough into 1-tablespoon balls. If the dough feels dry and won’t quite hold a ball shape, squeeze each piece firmly in your palm for a few seconds first — the warmth from your hands brings it together without needing extra butter or liquid.
Step 4: Press a Thumbprint
Press your thumb or the back of a rounded teaspoon into the center of each ball to make a deep well. If the edges crack when you press, that’s the dough being a little dry and crumbly by nature — just pinch the cracks closed with your fingers, and they’ll bake closed anyway.
Step 5: Chill the Dough
Place the shaped cookies on a lined baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes, or the freezer for 10 to 15. This step is what keeps the wells from puffing closed in the oven — a shortbread dough like this spreads more than a creamed-butter dough if it goes in warm.
Step 6: Fill With Jam
While the dough chills, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Stir the jam until smooth, then spoon about 1/2 teaspoon into each well. Fill generously but don’t overfill — jam that sits above the rim will bubble over the edge as it bakes.
Step 7: Bake
Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden — this shortbread stays pale compared to a creamed butter cookie, so don’t wait for deep color. Let the cookies cool completely on the pan before moving them; the jam needs time to set and the shortbread is fragile while warm.
Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
Method
- Whisk flour and salt together.
- Cut cold butter, powdered sugar, and almond extract into the flour until crumbly.
- Roll into 1-tablespoon balls.
- Press a thumbprint into the center of each ball, pinching closed any cracks.
- Chill 20-30 minutes in the fridge or 10-15 in the freezer.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Stir jam smooth and spoon into each well.
- Bake 14-16 minutes, until edges are just barely golden.
- Cool completely on the pan before serving.
Notes
- The dough looks crumbly and dry before it’s rolled — that’s normal for this cut-in shortbread, not a sign to add more butter.
- Chilling the shaped dough keeps the jam wells from puffing closed in the oven.
- Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients and will vary with brands and portion size.
Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies for Every Cookie Tray
Once you’ve made these one time, the crumbly dough stage won’t worry you anymore — it’s supposed to look that way right up until you squeeze it together. That’s the whole trick to this one.
These freeze beautifully, so it’s worth doubling the batch: roll and indent a second tray, skip the jam, and freeze the dough balls flat on a sheet before bagging them. Bake straight from frozen later, adding a couple extra minutes. If you give these a try, I’d love to hear how yours turned out in the comments below.
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