Buttery and Tender Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
4.50 from 6 votes

This is a plant-based version of the classic! These vegan thumbprint cookies are soft, buttery, and tender, with a sweet pocket of jam in the center. They come together simply, and the cookie dough is chilled for 4 hours to overnight (perfect for making ahead!) before they are baked up with your favorite flavor of jam.

Three vegan thumbprint cookies with different colored jam centers are resting on a small, white dessert plate.

Nothing spells comfort and cuteness more than a homemade vegan cookie. And there’s no sweeter touch than vegan cookies with jam.

Usually, I make these buttery and tender vegan thumbprint as a holiday recipe. They’re often my contribution to Christmas eve gatherings or holiday parties.

However, there’s no reason to wait for the winter holidays to make this delightful, home-based treat!

The thumbprint cookies are one of my favorite vegan cookie recipes, period.

Like my beloved vegan double chocolate chunk cookies and vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, they’re a perfect afternoon (or anytime) treat.

Unlike most of my cookies, these thumbprints need a little extra chilling time for the dough. In this post, I’ll walk you through the steps for making them—which includes lots of options to make them ahead!

What are thumbprint cookies?

Thumbprint cookies are so called because they have an indentation in the center that’s made by the gentle press of a thumb prior to baking. The base of the cookie is usually similar to sugar cookies, but with a different shape.

Thumbprint cookies can be rolled in finely ground nuts, or not. Their signature thumbprint can be filled with any flavor of jam. I’ve seen variations that are filled with chocolate or caramel. They can be finished with a zigzag of royal icing, or not.

I’ve always liked a minimalist thumbprint cookie, so that’s what I’m sharing today. It’s a vegan sugar cookie base with a jam center. Simple and perfect.

I love jam, and I always have a few different flavors at home. You’ll see that my cookies feature different types of jam, and therefore different colors.

But you can prepare the recipe with a single type of jam—any that you love—as well. My favorite for these cookies is raspberry.

The process of making thumbprint cookies vegan is simple: you’ll need to use vegan butter, rather than dairy butter. And the cookies don’t contain any egg.

A vegan butter of your choice works well for this recipe. I’ve made it with Earth Balance buttery sticks, Miyoko’s Creamery, and Country Crock avocado oil buttery sticks. All of these options have worked well for the recipe.

As far as texture goes, the goal here is a crumbly, tender, buttery cookie.

Unlike many of the more chewy cookies that I like to make, like my soft and chewy vegan peanut cookies, the vegan thumbprints should be reminiscent of a sugar cookie, or a light shortbread cookie.

How to make vegan thumbprint cookies

As with many baking recipes, these thumbprint cookies aren’t difficult to make. They just require a little patience and willingness to work step-by-step!

And here are those steps, in order.

As far as process goes, the first step here is to prepare a sugar cookie base. I use a very simple, no frills mixture of creamed vegan butter and sugar, flour, salt, and two extracts: almond and vanilla.

I found that egg replacer wasn’t necessary at all, which made this one of the easiest vegan cookies I’ve tried. For guidance on proportions of ingredients and chilling time, I looked to Sally’s recipe, which is excellent and thorough.

You can use either a stand mixer or or a handheld mixer to prepare the cookie dough. My stand mixer is my BFF during the holiday baking season.

Step 2: Chill the dough

This cookie dough, like many others, benefits from some chilling time.

Chilling the dough will ensure that your thumbprint cookies hold their shape and don’t spread too much while baking. I recommend a minimum of four hours of chilling time, or overnight if you prefer.

Step 3: Shape the dough

The next step in making the thumbprint cookies is to shape them. And I find that this is actually the trickiest part of the recipe.

You’ll start by rolling your dough into balls. You should use about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie (or 15 grams, if you have a kitchen scale and are aiming for consistency).

Next, you’ll place the dough balls on a baking sheet that’s lined with parchment paper, aiming to space them one and a half inches apart.

At this point, it’s time to make your thumbprint!

Several rough pieces of cookie dough rest on a lined baking sheet.
It’s easy to make a thumbprint shape in the cookie dough once that dough has been chilled for four or more hours.

The key here is to press gently, yet firmly. You want to create a distinct indentation in the balls of dough, without pressing so hard that you immediately crack their edges.

If the edges do crack a little, that’s OK. You can gently press the cracks back together once the cookies have all been shaped.

Step 4: Chill again

Yes, another chilling time. I tried the cookies with and without this additional hour in the fridge. The cookies that I did chill held their shape in baking much better than the ones I didn’t.

Step 5: Fill

Next, you can fill the thumbprint cookies with a jam of your choice. Choose your favorite flavor, or a combination of several. Some of my favorite options:

  • Strawberry
  • Boysenberry
  • Apricot
  • Blackberry
  • Blueberry
  • Marmalade
  • Ginger
  • Mango
  • Strawberry rhubarb

Pictured below are boysenberry and ginger jam. You’ll only need about a teaspoon of jam per cookie.

Balls of raw cookie dough have been indented and filled with jam. They rest on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Part of the fun of these cookies is to experiment with a number of different jam flavors and colors.

Step 6: Bake

The thumbprint cookies should bake for 13-15 minutes, or just enough time for them to become very lightly golden at the edges. You’re not aiming to brown them. 14 minutes was the perfect amount of time when I baked mine.

Three rows of thumbprint cookies, each filled with a different colored jam, are resting on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Finished baked thumbprint cookies will be puffy. A pale golden color is OK, but you don’t want them to be browning. They’ll have a crumbly, tender texture after cooling.

Ingredients

You’ll need only a short list of ingredients in order to make the thumbprint cookies. They are:

Vegan butter

You can use your favorite variety of vegan butter for the recipe. Any brand should work, but I do recommend a variety that comes in stick form for ease of measuring.

The butter will need to be at room temperature before you mix it.

Cane sugar

Cane sugar is the sweetener in the cookies. I sometimes use cane sugar interchangeably with another type of sugar, such as coconut sugar. For this recipe, however, I don’t recommend a substitute.

Vanilla and almond extracts

I keep both vanilla and almond extracts in my pantry at home. I use the vanilla in practically all of my dessert baking.

The almond extract is a favorite in cookie recipes, like this one. It also makes appearances in my vegan sugar cookies and biscotti.

If you don’t have almond extract on hand, it’s fine to use all vanilla extract in the cookies instead. If you have another extract or flavor that you love (such as hazelnut, coconut, or orange), you can use that in place of almond.

Unbleached, all-purpose flour

I use unbleached, all-purpose flour to make the thumbprint cookies. For this recipe, I don’t recommend substituting a whole grain or nut flour in its place.

However, if you need to make the recipe gluten-free, it’s fine to use a gluten-free, all-purpose flour blend in place of regular all-purpose flour.

Jam or jelly

Take your pick here! You can use whatever colors and flavors of jam or jelly appeal to you.

Storage

I recommend storing the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. After that, transfer the container to the fridge and store them for an additional two days.

If you’d like to store them for longer, the baked cookies can be frozen for up to eight weeks.

Make ahead options

The dough for these vegan thumbprint cookies can be mixed, wrapped, and then frozen for up to six weeks.

You can also shape the cookies, make the thumbprints in them, and then freeze them on a baking sheet for about thirty minutes. After this, you can transfer all of the shaped cookies into a Stasher bag or an airtight container and freeze them for up to six weeks.

The shaped cookies can be filled and baked directly from frozen; you may need to give them an extra couple minutes of baking time if you store them this way.

A round, rimmed dessert plate rests on a marble surface. It holds three jam filled sugar cookies.
Three vegan thumbprint cookies with different colored jam centers are resting on a small, white dessert plate.
4.50 from 6 votes

Buttery and Tender Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

Author – Gena Hamshaw
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Chilling time 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 44 minutes
Yields: 3 dozen

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl. Use the stand mixer or a handheld mixer to beat for about 2 minutes on low speed, until the butter is fluffy. Add the sugar, salt, and the two extracts. Continue beating for 1-2 minutes on medium low speed, until the butter and sugar mixture appears creamed. Add the flour to the mixer and beat on low speed until the flour is fully incorporated and you have a soft, fluffy dough. Gather this dough into the center of the bowl and cover the bowl with saran wrap or a cloth cover. Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours, or overnight. 
  • Preheat your oven to 350F. Remove the dough from the fridge and let it rest at room temperature for about twenty minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon measure to scoop the dough out of the bowl by tablespoons (about 15 g of dough per tablespoon). It'll require some scraping at first, as the dough will be stiff. Roll these tablespoons of dough into balls. 
  • Place the balls on the baking sheet with at least 1 1/2" of space between them. When you place each ball on the sheet, press your thumb into it to make a little indentation. The dough balls will crack a little as you press, but if they crack a lot, re-roll them and try again. You can gently smooth over little cracks with your finger to try to keep the cookie as intact as can be. Transfer the cookie sheet to the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to overnight (if you refrigerate them overnight, wrap the cookie sheet gently with saran wrap).
  • Use a teaspoon to place a scant teaspoon of jam into each cookie indentation. Transfer the cookie sheet (or sheets, if you need two) to the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies are just barely browning on the sides. (14 minutes worked perfectly for my batches). Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to gingerly transfer them to wire cooling racks to cool entirely. Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe inspired by Sally’s raspberry almond thumbprint cookies.

May these vegan cookies provide you with sweetness—on the plate and in your life!

xo

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Categories: Recipes, Cookies
Method: Oven
Dietary Preferences: Vegan
Recipe Features: Holidays

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4.50 from 6 votes (4 ratings without comment)

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    5 Comments
  1. This is such a fun recipe with fun flavor options, can’t wait to try. Thanks!

  2. 5 stars
    Made these today with cranberry spice jam – SO good and so easy! Definitely will be on my holiday baking list. Thanks for these gems

  3. 5 stars
    I just made these and they came out perfectly! I skipped the second chilling time and they still held their shape. My kitchen is on the colder side this time of year though, so if you have the heat cranked up or you’re in a warmer climate I imagine that the second chilling time would be essential.