Learn how to make easy thumbprint cookies with just 4 ingredients – sugar, flour, butter, and jam or jelly. Perfect for snacks!

What Are Thumbprint Cookies?

These are called thumbprint cookies because you literally use your thumb to create a little divot where you can place some jam or jelly. They are a lot of fun for kids to make and they make fantastic last-minute cookies too!

Thumbprint Cookies Video

Here’s a video showing you all of the steps. Watch this with your kids and make the cookies along with me.

What’s In Thumbprint Cookies

There are just 4 simple ingredients in these cookies. The exact amounts are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Here’s what you need from the store:

• White Sugar
• All-Purpose Flour
• Butter
• Jam, Jelly, or Marmalade

The Perfect Cookies For Beginning Bakers

If you are looking for a cookie recipe that you can make with your kids, this is it! They will have a blast making the thumbprints and adding the jelly on top before they bake.

How To Make Thumbprint Cookies

Here are my step-by-step pictures. If you want to see all the steps listed out, scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom.

I began by melting my sticks of butter in a bowl in the microwave.  This took about 55 seconds.  Then, I dumped the butter into a larger mixing bowl and added the 1/2 cup of sugar.  I simply whisked this together by hand.  You are certainly welcome to cream it in a mixer, but I have mine packed away somewhere, so I did it by hand.

Next, I mixed in the 2 cups of flour.  Again, you can use your mixer or mix by hand like I did.  Your mixture will become a light, crumbly, soft dough that will be easy to shape into balls.

I shaped the dough into teaspoon to tablespoon sized balls and placed on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Due to the high butter content, additional grease is unnecessary!  I found that the sooner I worked with the dough balls, the easier they were to shape and work with, as warmer dough was more flexible.  

We made thumbprints on each of the balls and filled each well with our favorite fillings, which were fig jam and raspberry fruit spread.

This is the fun part! Let your kids add their favorite jams or jellies on top. You can even go to the store and pick out some new ones they have never tried before.

Then, just bake them for anywhere from 10-15 minutes. Yes, this is a large range of time, you need to keep an eye on the cookies because all ovens work differently. Watch for the edges to turn the slightest bit golden brown.

After they reach the color around the edges, they are done! Ours took about 13 minutes.

This recipe makes an impressive finished product and uses the most common ingredients ever!  It is a no muss, no fuss creation that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.  The light, buttery cookies will be a hit with children and adults alike!

More Cookie Recipes

If you enjoy baking, try some of these recipes next!

• No-Bake Avalanche Cookies
• Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Soft Sugar Cookies