Vegan thumbprint cookies with a raspberry jam center and an almond glaze. Sound good? Great!
Let’s bake!
We start off with a simple shortbread cookie dough, I adapted our recipe for vegan shortbread cookies.
We make up the dough and then roll it into balls. Some recipes advise chilling the dough first, but I found it almost impossible to put the thumbprint into the chilled dough without it cracking terribly. I found it easiest to put a thumbprint into pliable dough and then chill it afterwards before adding the jam.
So roll the dough into balls and then use your thumb to make indentations into each ball. It will crack a little, just smooth it as best you can with your fingers and don’t worry too much about it. Then you place the tray into the freezer to chill for 15 minutes.
Then you use a teaspoon to add the jam into the thumbprint indentations and smooth it down. Bake in the oven for around 16 minutes. You want the edges of the cookies to be just slightly browned.
It’s quite different to regular shortbread cookies in this respect because regular shortbread is hard and crunchy, whereas these cookies are soft and crumbly. This is why regular shortbread cooks at a lower temperature for a longer time period, whereas this cooks for a much shorter time at a lower temperature.
Allow to cool completely before drizzling with a simple glaze of powdered sugar, non-dairy milk and just a drop of almond extract. You want just a hint of almond flavor, nothing overpowering.
I used raspberry jam, but I have also made a batch with mixed berry jam that was just as fabulous. So use any jam you fancy or whatever you have on hand.
Getting the right consistency for the glaze can be a bit tricky because 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk is too little and 2 tablespoons is way too much. So you have to add 1 tablespoon and then single drops until you get it just right. If your glaze is too runny, it will slide right off your cookies, but if it’s too thick, it won’t drizzle on at all.
We actually found it quite useful to use our piping kit to put this on, just using the thinnest attachment to pipe it in a drizzle pattern.
I really think you will love these vegan thumbprint cookies! They are:
- Soft and buttery
- Rich
- Perfectly sweet
- Melt-in-your-mouth
- Easy and fun
Keep the cookies in an airtight container where they will stay fresh for a few days or covered in the fridge where they will stay good for up to a week.
What do you think of these vegan thumbprint cookies? Tell us in the comments and please rate the recipe too, it’s super helpful for us! Thank you!
For more fabulous vegan cookies, check out these awesome recipes:
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Gingersnap Cookies
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Thin Mint Cookies
And heaps more!
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Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 16 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 1 minutes
- Yield: 20
Description
Soft and buttery vegan thumbprint cookies with a raspberry jam center and almond glaze. These perfectly sweet melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookie delights are so easy and fun to make and simply gorgeous!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (225g) Vegan Butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) White Sugar
- 1/4 tsp Almond Extract*
- 2 Cups (250g) All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/3 cup Raspberry Jam*
For the Glaze:
- 1 cup (120g) Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tbsp (plus a few drops) Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1–2 drops Almond Extract
Instructions
- Add the vegan butter and sugar to an electric mixer and cream them together. Then add in the almond extract and mix in.
- Add in the flour and salt and stir in by hand until it forms a thick dough.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and break off pieces of the dough, roll into balls and place the balls onto the tray.
- Use your thumb to create thumbprints in the balls, the dough may crack along the edges, just use your fingers to try to smooth out the cracks as best you can. Try and get the thumb indents as uniform as possible.
- Place the tray with the cookies into the freezer for 15 minutes so that the cookies can firm up before filling the indents with jam.
- After 15 minutes bring out the tray, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and fill the thumbprints with raspberry jam.
- Bake in the oven for 16 minutes until the edges of the cookies are slightly browned.
- Let them cool for at least 30 minutes before glazing.
- For the glaze, add the powdered sugar, soy milk and a drop or two of almond extract (just enough to get the flavor but nothing overpowering) to your electric mixer. A tablespoon of soy milk is too little, so you need just a few extra drops of soy milk to get the right amount.
- Drizzle the glaze over your cooled cookies, or use a piping bag to pipe it on.
Notes
*The almond extract flavor is subtle and adds charm 🙂 – but it can also be omitted if it’s not an appealing flavor blend to you.
*Feel free to use a different flavor jam.
- Category: Dessert, Cookies
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 150
- Sugar: 13.4g
- Sodium: 133mg
- Fat: 5.4g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 24.1g
- Fiber: 0.4g
- Protein: 1.3g
This is my favorite vegan cookie recipe. I’ve made it so many times now and my non-vegan friends and family LOVE them also!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Bailey!
Winner recipe! My husband and 2 1/2 year old daughter and I all loved them, which is not typical at all. (Note to self: always double this recipe!) Not difficult at all, they make a brilliant presentation, and they taste even better than they look. I know I made some substitutions, but unfortunately I can’t report what because I don’t remember exactly what I did anymore.
★★★★★
Fantastic! Thanks Tzivi! 🙂
Tasted great! But I have a story to tell . I finished putting the jam in the middle of the cookies but as I was putting them into the oven the pan fell out of my hands and went all over the oven. Luckily, I only used half of the dough.
★★★★★
Oh no! Hahaha, happens to all of us at some stage! So glad you managed to save some. 🙂
Hello, I made these cookies twice. First time it turned out as expected and tasted great. Thank you for this yummy recipe! However the second time these cookies spread while baking making them rather thinner. What could I have done to make them spread? Thank you.
Hi Mina, it may be that the dough warmed up a bit more the second time around. We chill the dough for this recipe so that they can hold their shape well. Maybe after adding the jam just put them back in the freezer for 5 minutes so that they are nice and chilled when they go into the oven and that will make sure they hold their shape well. All the best! 🙂
Thank you! I will try it that way next time! Happy holidays! ❤️
Thanks Mina! Happy Holidays to you too! 🙂
Love these. I make them all the time for me and my family, I’m the only vegan but no complaints from anyone else, they wouldn’t know any different to be honest and they all love them too.
★★★★★
Awesome Emma! Thanks for the wonderful review. 🙂
Hiya..
What step do you need to preheat the oven?
★★★★★
Hi Olivia, you preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) after the dough has chilled and while you’re filling them with raspberry jam. 🙂
Can I just leave out the almond extract if I’m allergic to nuts and what if I cant get vanilla extract to replace it… can i use lemon juice instead???
★★★★
Hi Sarah, you don’t have to replace it with anything, just leave it out. 🙂
Absolutely delicious! Dec to add some oil last batch as dough not holding together. Yum
Thanks for sharing Jessica. 🙂
Warm greetings from the Netherlands!
Just did these and they turned out great!
Raspberry jam. Liked the saltiness.
This was a Christmas trial run (did the gingerbread for Saint Nicolas on December 5th – also nice!)
Will spread the good cheer at work tomorrow and make fresh ones the 25th!
(I’ll prepare them, freeze them uncooked this week and bake them on Christmas morning)
★★★★★
Hi Jeanette, so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Hope your colleagues enjoy them too! Thanks a million for the great review. 🙂
Hello, is the butter used softened to room temp or is it cold.
Hi Pam, I usually add it to the mixer cold from the fridge and don’t soften first but it is creamed with the sugar so softens and comes up to room temperature during that process.
These are GREAT! We used vanilla instead of almond. I am a home canner and used my own blackberry jam with no glaze! I’ve been searching for a great vegan shortbread! We will use this recipe time and time again!
★★★★★
Thanks Kelly! 🙂
Great recipe! We Just made these for thanksgiving with a homemade cranberry chutney-type filling. soft and “buttery,” perfect for my non-vegan family. Personally; they look a little pale (the bottoms are nice and golden), might try some whole wheat flour next time.
Quick, easy, and tasty! I used self raising flour and it was fine. Slightly too salty for my taste so I’ll reduce that next time. I used seedless bramble preserve and was a bit over generous so it leaked over the sides! Off to search more of your recipes now!
Hi Catherine! Glad to hear it worked well with self raising. Self raising does have added salt though so that would account for extra saltiness. 🙂 Hope you find lots of recipes here that you like! Thanks for posting. 🙂
They taste awesome! I used vanilla extract and blueberry jam instead.
★★★★★
Sounds lovely! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I have never made shortbread before, but I made these today since I had homemade thimbleberry freezer jam to use up. i found the dough a bit crumbly so I just added another Tablespoon of vegan butter and they were perfect. I made 1/2 recipe which made 7 large cookies. The glaze was really a nice addition. Thank you for the recipe – it is DEFINITELY a keeper for me and I can’t wait to make more of these closer to the holidays as I know they’ll be a huge hit.
★★★★★
Awesome Tara, so glad they came out well! Thanks for posting! 🙂
What kind of butter did you use?
I just made these with homemade vegan butter (made with coconut oil) and they were a bit oily, but so yummy! I’ll try with margarine next time. Store bought vegan butter doesn’t exist in Argentina, so I make do. Unfortunately, I didn’t have powdered sugar, but they’re great without it too! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
★★★★
Hi Ella, glad you enjoyed them overall. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
These were amazing!! I cook and bake for my daughter who’s vegan (I’m vegetarian) they were easy to make and really really yummy!! If I didn’t know they were vegan I would not have been able to tell! Bravo for another great recipe! I LOVE this blog!!! Thank you!
★★★★★
Yay! So glad to hear they were a success and SO happy you love the blog, thanks so much Heather! 🙂
Thank you for another great recipe! I made these last night, and the cookies were outstanding! I did not use any glaze on them, I thought they were perfectly sweet without it. I did not have almond extract, so I used 1/8 tsp vanilla extract instead. I tried some of them with raspberry jam, and some with blackberry jam, both were very good.
Really simple and easy to make, soft, moist, and delicious. They were a huge hit with my family.
Do you know if I could try these with another kind of flour, such as spelt or gluten free?
Also, could I use a healthier kind of sweetener, such as honey or maple syrup?
thanks again
★★★★★
Hi Carrie, so glad you enjoyed the cookies! You could try with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend, that might work out okay though I haven’t tested that. Since maple syrup is a wet ingredient it couldn’t be substituted for granulated sugar, but you could try something like coconut sugar but I have no idea how it would turn out. All the best! 🙂
Simple vegan treat, melt in the mouth deliciousness
★★★★★