Kids love making these gluten free Jam Thumbprint Cookies. They get to use their thumb to make the dent in the dough balls and that's part of the fun. Gluten free kids need new traditions like this to make up for the many challenges they have with food outside of the home.
Over time gluten free families can learn to remake old holiday favourites and find some new ones too. I finally had success when I remade these Jam Thumbprints using what I now call my gluten free Cookie Flour Blend. I love cookies so if you're looking for more check out this Recipe Roundup of Cookies.
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Ingredients
Use any jam, or a variety of jams, to make these cookies sparkle on your next holiday cookie tray.
- cookie flour blend (brown rice flour, almond flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum)
- baking powder
- butter
- sugar
- egg
- vanilla extract
- jam (apricot, raspberry, blueberry or pineapple)
See recipe card for exact amounts.
Substitutions
Thumbprint Cookies lend themselves to variations. Here are a few ideas.
- Use a tiny spoon to make a heart shaped indent and fill with red jam.
- Roll the dough balls in chopped walnuts or pecans (or even finely shredded coconut) before making the indent.
- Dust jam filled cookies with icing sugar just before serving. The icing sugar on the jam will melt quickly but the rest creates a festive snowy look.
- Drizzle jam filled cookies with thinned icing for extra sweetness.
- Skip the jam and top with an unwrapped Hershey Kiss instead.
If you've got kids or friends who love making cookies you'll find more tips in this post, How To Host a Cookie Decorating Party.
Best Tools for Making Cookies
Baking pans can last for decades so collect good quality pans over time. Pay attention to the shapes and sizes you like and work well for you. Here's what I use for a cookie baking spree.
- Two cookie sheets (no edges so cookies can slide of easily).
- Two jellyroll pans, also know as baking sheets, with ¼-inch sides all around (used more for cooking but helpful for a cookie baking spree).
- A set of metal portion scoops in various sizes that will be used for muffins, meatballs and more.
Thanks to Luane Kohnke for lots of inspiration in her cookbook Gluten Free Cookies. It's what kept me going in the early days of gluten free baking.
Gluten Free Jam Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 290 grams gluten free Cookie Flour Blend* (2¼ cups)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
WET INGREDIENTS
- ¾ cup butter, room temperature
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
FILLING
- ¼ cup raspberry, apricot, cherry, pineapple or blueberry jam
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine cookie flour blend, baking powder and salt.
- In the large bowl of a stand mixer beat butter to soften, 1-2 minutes.
- Add sugar and increase speed to high. Beat until fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla, beat until evenly combined.
- Decrease speed to low and slowly add flour mixture beating until combined.
- Cover and refrigerate 1 hour to chill the dough. This can be made 1-2 days in advance.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a small scoop drop 1-inch balls of dough onto cookie sheet. Roll each ball in your hand to make the sides smooth. Make a dent in the middle of each cookie using your thumb. Fill each dent with 1 teaspoon jam.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges begin to brown. Cool completely on wire racks.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Question's
That's the million dollar question for gluten free bakers. Blends can work in 'most recipes' but they never work in ALL recipes. I never had success with my EGFG flour blend so I kept searching.
The high fat content of cookies and the short cooking time make it difficult for the gluten free flours to absorb the fat. We have several tweaks to recipes to make up for this and it takes trial and error with each recipe to get the result you want.
Yes you can freeze raw cookie dough. I recommend shaping the cookies first rather than freezing a blob of dough. This way they're ready to bake and enjoy but either ways works. Place them directly onto a cookie sheet from the freezer and bake according to the directions. 
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Marn
These are excellent! I've just begun the adventure of gluten free baking and have had some truly disastrous experiences, producing things that are closer to hockey pucks than cookies. These cookies are little circles of melt in your mouth wonderfulness. Thanks for putting this on-line. Much appreciated.
Cinde Little
Hi Marn. I've had my share of disasters with cookies so I'm glad to hear this recipe worked for you, it's a Christmas miracle! I hope you saw the list of cookie recipes that I make with the same flour blend so if you're on a roll keep going. Happy baking!
Abby Lynn
These are great! Love changing up the jam.
Cinde Little
Thanks Abby, I'm glad you liked them. I'm making them with 3 different colours of jam this year; apricot, raspberry and blueberry.
Tricia
Theses cookies are really good. They look great and taste great.
Cinde Little
Thanks Tricia! I'm going to make these Thumbprint Cookies using three different jams this time just for the look. 🙂
Sheila
Made the thumbprint cookies at my daughters request. She’s coming home for Christmas and I can always use GF ideas for when she visits. These cookies turned out very nicely and I have frozen them, which I hope will work (?). I will likely try another of your recipes shortly. Do you have a GF artisan bread recipe that tastes and bakes well?
Thanks for any ideas you have.
Cinde Little
Yes Sheila, you can freeze the dough balls with or without the jam and cook them from frozen. Same temperature and cooking time. I hope your daughter loves them. If you're making cookies I hope you check out my Cookie Recipe Roundup post. There are 4 other cookie recipes with the same cookie flour blend, a Whipped Shortbread that is melt-in-your-mouth amazing and many more!
I don't know if this qualifies as Artisan Bread but I just called it Crusty Bread and I've recently been messaging 2 people and we were all making it in loaf pans and comparing notes. Happy baking!