Jam Drops! Vanilla shortbread biscuits with a dollop of jam baked in the middle, these old-fashioned favourites are also known as Thumbprint Cookies. Just like your nana used to make them! Though I think I’m a little more generous with the jam. 🙂
Jam drops
You know how people write about how there’s sooo many things you can bake with just flour, sugar, butter and eggs, but when you need to bake something right now without going to the shops, you just can’t think what to make?
Of course, it has to be something quick and easy, universally adored by everyone, and bonus points if looks pretty.
Well, the next time you’re in that situation, Jam Drops are your answer! (Don’t try to tell me you don’t have a jar of jam in your pantry…). This old school favourite is a buttery shortbread cookie with a dollop of jam baked in the middle, it’s a combination that just works, is simple to make and loved by all. Why aren’t we making Jam Drops more often??
Ingredients in Jam Drops
Here’s what you need to make Jam Drops. The cookie is a cross between melt-in-your-mouth buttery shortbread cookies and classic vanilla biscuits. I blend the two because I feel like shortbread cookies are a little too sandy-crumbly for this shape of cookie, whereas vanilla cookies are a little crisper than what I want.
-
Jam – Any flavour you want! Strawberry and raspberry are common (strawberry is pictured), apricot is also popular. Whatever you use, and especially if it’s from the fridge, give it a good mix beforehand to loosen it up so it pools nicely in the dent. (Microwave gently if necessary but be sure it’s at room temperature before you use it, else it will melt the butter).
-
Unsalted butter, softened – Use unsalted rather than salted butter, as the amount of salt in butter varies from brand to brand. Soften it to room temperature so it can be creamed – around 17-20°C is ideal (63-68°F), if you want to be exact! If it gets too soft, it will be greasy, melted, sloppy mess.
-
Flour – Just regular plain flour / all-purpose flour. Don’t use self raising flour (ie with baking powder built in), it will make the cookies puff up and get too soft.
-
Sugar – Caster sugar / superfine sugar is ideal here because the grains are finer so it ensures you don’t end up with any undissolved sugar in the cookie. However, regular sugar / granulated sugar works fine too.
-
Vanilla extract – For lovely vanilla flavour. Use vanilla extract rather than imitation vanilla essence (fake isn’t as good). I personally don’t use vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste because it’s more expensive – I reserve it for creme brûlée, creme anglaise, that sort of thing!
-
Egg – Just one large egg, which is an industry standard weight of 50-55g/2oz per egg (sold in cartons labelled “large eggs” which are 600g / 1.2lb for a dozen).
-
Salt – Just 1/4 teaspoon, to bring out the vanilla and buttery flavour in the cookies. Well accepted standard baking practice these days.
How to make Jam Drop Biscuits
Here’s how to make Jam Drops. Depending on your rolling speed, they take around 40 minutes from start to finish (5 minutes dough mixing, 21 minutes rolling/assembling, 14 minutes oven).
1. Make the cookie dough
-
Cream Butter and Sugar – Beat butter and sugar until it’s creamy. It takes about 1 1/2 minutes on medium speed. Initially it will be a bit crumbly but then it will come together. Use a handheld electric beater or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (not the whisk, aerates butter too much + annoying to clean). Scrape down the sides as needed.
-
Finish dough – Add the vanilla, egg and salt. Beat for about 20 seconds until it’s incorporated. At first the mixture will seem a bit split but it will come together (and it comes together more when the flour is added). Add the flour then beat until you no longer see white flour.
-
Crumbly dough – The mixture will be crumbly but if you grab a bit, you will see that it presses together into a dough.
-
See? 🙂
2. Forming cookies
I have a very specific method to shape jam drop cookies so they don’t crack. The typical method is to roll all the balls, put them on the tray then make an indent in the middle which also flattens them slightly. When you do the indent, it makes the cookies crack. You can fix it by pressing the edges together but honestly, I just find it easier to do this roll > flatten > indent method, working one cookie at a time (plus the cookies come out so neat!).
-
Measure – Tightly pack a 1 tablespoon measure or a size 60 cookie scoop (15 ml / 0.5 oz) with the crumbly dough, very slightly mounded rather than absolutely flat.
-
Tap it out onto your hand.
-
Scrunch / press the crumbly mixture to form a pliable dough.
-
Roll into a smooth, crack free ball.
-
Press into a 1.25 cm / 1/2″ thick disc.
-
Indent the cookie using your thumb. (Thumbprint cookies!) My dents are probably a little more generous in width than most, to hold more jam (most recipes seem to use around 1/4 teaspoon per cookie, I use 1/2 heaped teaspoon).
-
Repeat with remaining cookies working one cookie at a time. It works best to flatten and indent a freshly rolled cookie ball which is slightly warm on the surface from your hand as it is less prone to cracking.
-
Place cookies on a baking paper lined tray (parchment paper)*. Leave 3.5cm / 1.5″ space between each. They only spread about 10% but we want the air circulation so they bake evenly.
* Not the end of the world if you don’t have paper, you can bake on an un-greased tray as they won’t stick because they are so buttery. The paper protects the base of the cookie slightly so it cooks a little more evenly.
3. FILLING & BAKING
-
Fill the indent of each cookie with jam. Make sure the jam is nice and loose so it oozes into the dent rather than sitting upright in a stiff dollop (which mightn’t properly spread in the oven).
⚠️ Don’t be too greedy with the jam! Fill so it’s level with the surface of the cookie. It will spread and we don’t want overflow. Also, you can top the jam up after they come out of the oven, if you feel they need it.
-
Ready to bake! We will bake both trays at the same time.
-
Bake for 14 minutes, until they are light golden around the edges and pale golden on the surface. Rotate the trays and switch the shelves* at the 10 minute make, so they cook evenly.
* By this, I mean move the tray on the lower shelf onto the top shelf and the tray on the top shelf onto the lower shelf.
-
Cool the cookies on the tray, during which time the underside will finish cooking. Then grab and devour!
Jam Drops will last for 5 to 7 days in an airtight container in the pantry, though they are at their best in the first 2 – 3 days after baking. After this, the jam starts to soften the cookie a touch, I find.
And lastly, I’m dropping in another FAQ section for this recipe! It’s a new function on the website that I started using for recent recipes. A neater way to include extra information to answer questions, as well as a place for me to write (yet hide) excessive volumes of information about recipe testing and development! Because sometimes (ok, often), I have a lot to say about a recipe but I don’t want to clutter the post with my outpourings. So I have to exercise severe restraint.
No more! I can chatter away and hide it in the collapsable section. I love it. – Nagi x
Jam Drops FAQ
They are essentially the same thing! These are called Jam Drops here in Australia, Thumbprint Cookies in the US (reference to the manner in which the dent is traditionally made ie with your thumb!) and Jammy Biscuits in the UK.
But fundamentally, they are all the same – a vanilla butter biscuit, typically like shortbread, with a jammy centre.
There is no single recipe for Jam Drops. They are essentially a vanilla butter biscuit with jam in the middle.
Some cookies are shorter (ie more crumbly) than others, like shortbread. Some are softer cookies, like my Soft Choc Chip Cookies. Some are more like vanilla biscuits and not as buttery. Mine is a cross between shortbread and a vanilla cookie – it’s beautifully buttery with a really lovely vanilla flavour and crisp with a “melt in your mouth” texture. But it is not as crumbly as traditional shortbread cookies (too crumbly = mess when you bite into the cookie). It annoyed me. Yes, these are the sort of thoughts that invade my mind when I’m trying to sleep.
I have seen some recipes add the jam after baking. But I prefer baking with the jam! It’s nice when it bakes into the cookie so they become one, and I also like how the jam sort of caramelises on the surface and edges (a touch of chewy is the best!).
See next point. It was irritating me!
Yep, I know. But it works!! Typical recipes will tell you to roll balls, put them on a tray, then gently press a dent in the middle using your thumb or a round teaspoon. Doing this makes a dent in the middle for the jam as well as flattening the cookie. This is what makes them split around the edges – I don’t care how well you have rolled the balls! The fact is, this dough is crumbly (because it’s like shortbread), so crack-age is practically guaranteed. So you can either fuss with fixing cracks (it’s tedious) or leave them as is, with ragged cracked edges. They look rustic. And still taste fantastic!
Yes you can do this. The cookie is still likely to crack a bit. But the thing that bothers me the most is that you get a deep small hole for the jam. I like a wider more shallow pool of jam, for visual purposes and enjoyment of eating.
No I don’t. These ingredients are sometimes used to make cookies / biscuits more “melt in your mouth” soft, there’s a scientific reason for how it works. Custard powder also comes built in with a yellow colour and vanilla flavour which some people find appealing but I do not (I find the vanilla flavour artificial).
For Jam Drops, I actually do not want the cookie as “crumbly” as traditional shortbread so I deliberately don’t use it.
As a side note (for fellow baking nerds!) I typically find that if you make a cookie dough with the appropriate proportions and mixing technique, the addition of cornflour or custard powder is usually not required for the “perfect” result. Like – shortbread cookies. I tried with and without cornflour (and rice flour, the alternative). The difference is so negligible with my recipe, so I don’t bother (one less ingredient!). But, for shortbread cookies, other recipes I tried call for much more dough kneading and handling, which toughens the cookie so it needs custard powder to rectify the cookie texture.
Typical jam drop recipes will only call for an egg yolk, whereas my recipe calls for one whole egg. I prefer to use a whole egg for simplicity purposes (don’t have to worry about using leftover egg whites) so I’ve always made my jam drops this way. Out of curiosity, I tried my recipe using two yolks instead of one whole egg and did not notice a difference at all. The cookie is already so buttery, the extra richness from using just yolks wasn’t noticeable to me.
Cup sizes differ slightly between the US (1 cup = 226ml) and the rest of the world (250 ml). While the difference is not enough to make a difference in most recipes, for some baking recipes it can mean the difference between success and failure.
I made this recipe using US cups, Australian cups and the weights I’ve provided and there was no difference in the end result. So the difference in cup sizes does not matter for this recipe!
Watch how to make it
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Jam Drops (Thumbprint Cookies)
Prep: 26 minutes
Cook: 14 minutes
Cooling: 15 minutes
Sweet Baking
Western
Servings28
Tap or hover to scale
Instructions
Abbreviated steps for baking pros:
-
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla, egg and salt, then beat in flour. Roll 3cm/1.2″ balls (#60 cookie scoop), flatten, indent, fill. Bake 14 minutes 180°C/350°F (160°C fan), cool on tray.
Full recipe steps
-
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Line 2 trays with baking paper/parchment paper.
-
Cream butter and sugar – Beat the butter and sugar until creamy – about 1 1/2 minutes on medium speed using an electric beater or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
-
Crumbly dough – Add the vanilla, egg and salt, then beat for ~20 seconds until incorporated. Add the flour and salt, then beat until you cannot see white flour. The mixture will be crumbly.
-
Form cookies – Measure out 1 tablespoon of mixture, very tightly packed (#60 cookie scoop). Tap out onto your hand, scrunch in your first to press into a dough then roll into a smooth ball (3cm/1.2″). Flatten into a 1.25cm disc (1/2″) then use your thumb to make an indent. (This method avoids cracks, see Note 3).
-
Fill – Place cookie on the tray, and repeat to make 25 – 28 cookies, leaving 3.5cm / 1.5″ between each. Fill the indent with slightly heaped 1/2 teaspoon jam (Note 4).
-
Bake for 14 minutes (both trays at the same time), or until the edges are light golden and the surface is pale golden. Rotate and switch the tray shelves at the 10 minute mark, so they cook evenly.
-
Cool fully on the tray (the base will finish cooking). Then grab and devour!
Recipe Notes:
2. Loosen jam by microwaving briefly then stirring vigorously, so it sort of thickly oozes when dolloped into the dent rather than a lump of jam (might not spread when baked). But make sure it’s not hot when you fill the cookies (will make butter in cookies melt = bad)
Apricot is also another popular jam flavour. Try a mix so you have lovely colours!
3. Stop crackage – Roll > flatten > indent each cookie one at a time, as you go, as the dough is slightly warm and pliable, so less prone to breaking. (Rather than rolling all, putting on tray, then indenting them all at the same time – dough surface dries out / goes slightly cold = crackage)
4. Jam filling – Though it’s tempting, don’t be greedy. The jam spreads slightly in the oven and you might get overflow. Restrain now, and you can top up later.
Different measures – Cup sizes differ slightly between the US (1 cup = 226ml) and the rest of the world (250 ml). While the difference is not enough to make a difference in most recipes, for some baking recipes it can mean the difference between success and failure. I made this recipe using US cups, Australian cups and the weights I’ve provided and there was no difference in the end result.
Storage – Biscuits will keep for a week in an airtight container though they are at their best for the first 2 to 3 days (jam starts to soften base). Dough can also be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated, then bring to room temperature (else it’s impossible to roll balls). You could even form the cookies, refrigerate (covered in cling wrap), then fill with jam just prior to baking (factor in extra baking time for cold tray).
Nutrition per cookie, using 28 cookies.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 139cal (7%)Carbohydrates: 18g (6%)Protein: 1g (2%)Fat: 7g (11%)Saturated Fat: 4g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 23mg (8%)Sodium: 77mg (3%)Potassium: 21mg (1%)Fiber: 0.4g (2%)Sugar: 8g (9%)Vitamin A: 209IU (4%)Vitamin C: 1mg (1%)Calcium: 6mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
For cookie monsters
Life of Dozer
Playing a few roles today:
