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These vegan thumbprint cookies are sweet, tender, and bursting with sweet jam filling! Easy to make and perfect for the holidays.
I’ve been trying to up my vegan holiday cookie game this year. See, I realized recently that this site is lacking a bit in the holiday cookies department. I mean, I have some holiday cookie recipes, but some isn’t nearly enough to express my deep love of vegan holiday cookie baking. It’s all I want to do this time of year!
So today I’m sharing a recipe for one of my favorites: jammy vegan thumbprint cookies. They’re so good! I’m not even a jam person, but there’s just something about biting into a buttery cookie filled with sweet jammy goodness.
They’re also super cute and fun to make!
Jump to:
- What You’ll Need
- How to Make Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Shelf-Life & Storage
- More Vegan Holiday Cookie Recipes
- Jam-Filled Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
What You’ll Need
- Flour. We’re using regular old all-purpose wheat flour for these cookies. You might be able to get away with using another variety like an all-purpose gluten-free blend, but I haven’t tried so I can’t make any promises!
- Cornstarch.
- Salt.
- Cinnamon. This is an optional ingredient. You’ll barely be able to tell it’s in there, but it will make your cookies taste better!
- Vegan butter. Most stores sell this near the regular butter. Look for brands like Earth Balance and Miyoko’s.
- Sugar. Be sure to use organic sugar to keep the recipe vegan.
- Brown sugar. Again, use organic.
- Vanilla extract.
- Almond extract. This is optional, but really adds to the flavor of the cookies.
- Non-dairy milk. Just about any variety that’s unsweetened and unflavored will work.
- Jam. Have fun and use your favorite variety of jam, or several varieties! I made apricot and raspberry vegan thumbprint cookies.
How to Make Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
- Whisk your dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl: flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a separate mixing bowl, beat your butter, sugars, vanilla and almond extract together with an electric mixer at high speed. Make sure your butter is at room temperature. If you forget to set it out in advance, use this method to soften it up quickly.
- Beat in the non-dairy milk. Make sure this ingredient is also at room temperature.
- Start beating in the flour mixture, a bit at a time, using the mixer on low speed. When all of the mixture has been added you should have a soft dough.
- Cover the bowl tightly and chill the dough for 45 minutes to an hour. This step is super important, so don’t skip it! Chilling the dough will prevent it from spreading too much when you bake the cookies. If this were to happen they’d lose their shape and the jam would spill out.
- After the dough has chilled, roll it into balls and roll each ball in sugar. Arrange them on a baking sheet and use your thumb (or a teaspoon-sized measuring spoon) to make a little indentation in each one.
- Fill the indentations with jam. Tip: warm up your jam so it’s a bit runny. This will make filling your cookies a bit easier!
- Bake the cookies until they spread out just a teensy bit and darken slightly.
- Place the baking sheets on a cooling rack and let your vegan thumbprint cookies cool for a few minutes before removing them.
Shelf-Life & Storage
Store any leftover vegan jam cookies in a sealed container or bag at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze them for up to 2 months.