A high altitude recipe for soft raspberry thumbprint sugar cookies, with a soft and chewy sugar coated cookie and sweet raspberry jam filling. A hint of almond extract in the cookie dough adds a lovely complementary flavor to the raspberry jam, and the cookies stay so incredibly soft for days.
You might also love these soft and fluffy frosted sugar cookies, three ingredient peanut butter cookies, and pumpkin spice maple sugar cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Soft for Days. After baking these cookies, I kept a few in a container and even 4-5 days later, they were still perfectly soft.
Versatile. If raspberry isn’t your favorite flavor, you can use any flavor of jam you like to fill your thumbprint cookies. Blueberry, blackberry, peach or apricot would all be great, or even lemon curd, too.
Perfected for High Altitude. I based today’s raspberry thumbprint sugar cookies on my soft and fluffy sugar cookie recipe. Since I think thumbprint cookies shouldn’t spread too much, and look best when they can maintain their cute, round shape as they bake, I tested the recipe multiple times to ensure it works perfectly for high altitude.
For Any Occasion. Although this recipe is simple enough for an every day cookie, these would be so lovely in a Christmas cookie box with their ruby red jewel centers.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour. Gives the cookies structure and strength.
- Corn Starch. Tenderizes the cookie dough for a softer sugar cookie.
- Powdered Sugar. Adds sweetness, while the fine texture keeps the cookies soft and tender.
- Granulated Sugar. For rolling the dough balls before baking.
- Baking powder. This is the leavening agent that makes the sugar cookies fluffy.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Unsalted Butter. Adds moisture and fat to the cookies for a flavorful, tender texture.
- Egg Yolks. Gives the cookies structure and strength. Using just the yolks, instead of the whole egg, not only makes the cookies more chewy and soft, but also prevents them from spreading too much as they bake.
- Vanilla. I used vanilla bean paste for a very distinct vanilla flavor, but you can also use vanilla extract.
- Almond Extract. Adds a nice complementary flavor to the raspberry jam.
- Raspberry Jam. You need seedless raspberry jam, but that can sometimes be hard to find. If your jam has seeds, simply press it through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds.
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt, until well combined.
- Add the cold butter pieces, and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until very small pieces of butter remain, and the mixture is crumbly.
- Add the vanilla, almond extract and egg yolks, and stir in to moisten the dry ingredients, then use your hands to work the moisture in until it comes together into a soft dough.
- Divide the dough into 18 equal portions. TIP: This is easiest to do if you weigh all the dough, divide that number by 18, then weigh out each portion. So if you have 21 ounces of dough, you would weigh out around 1.2 ounces of dough per cookie.
- Roll each portion of dough into a ball, then coat the dough balls in the 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Press the bottom of a measuring spoon into each dough ball to indent the center.
- Stir the raspberry jam thoroughly, so that it’s very smooth, not chunky. Fill the centers of each of the cookies with about 1 teaspoon of the jam.
- Chill the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 1 hour, to help prevent them spreading too much as they bake.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with a piece of nonstick baking paper or parchment paper.
- Place the chilled cookies 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 11 minutes, just until the edges are set, and the color is a pale golden brown. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
What size measuring spoon should I use to indent the centers of the cookies?
This will depend on the style of your measuring spoons. If they’re the thin, stainless steel kind, then use the 1 teaspoon measuring spoon to make the indents, so you can fill them with 1 teaspoon jam. The white ceramic measuring spoon shown in the photos above is very thick, so even though it’s marked as a 1/4 teaspoon, it created an indentation big enough to fill with 1 teaspoon of jam.
How should I store the leftover cookies?
Raspberry thumbprint sugar cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3-6 months.
What if I can’t find seedless raspberry jam?
If you can’t find seedless raspberry jam, simply press the jam through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds. You can also try any flavor of jam that you like. Regardless of the flavor, it’s important for the jam to be smooth, not chunky, when you fill your cookies. During the testing process I found that little chunks in the jam caused it to splatter more and stain the tops of the cookies. So definitely stir it up well before hand, or puree it in a food processor to smooth out any pieces of whole fruit.
You Might Also Like
Peanut Butter Cookies 
Soft Sugar Cookies 
Pumpkin Spice Cookies 
Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
Favorite Products
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Raspberry Thumbprint Sugar Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet.
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
- 2 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract, optional
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, for rolling the dough balls
- ⅓ cup seedless raspberry jam (see note)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt, until well combined.
- Add the cold butter pieces, and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until very small pieces of butter remain, and the mixture is crumbly.
- Add the vanilla, almond extract and egg yolks, and stir in to moisten the dry ingredients, then use your hands to work the moisture in until it comes together into a soft dough.
- Divide the dough into 18 equal portions. TIP: This is easiest to do if you weigh all the dough, divide that number by 18, then weigh out each portion. So if you have 21 ounces of dough, you would weigh out around 1.2 ounces of dough per cookie.
- Roll each portion of dough into a ball, then coat the dough balls in the 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Press the bottom of a measuring spoon into each dough ball to indent the center.
- Stir the raspberry jam thoroughly, so that it's very smooth, not chunky. Fill the centers of each of the cookies with about 1 teaspoon of the jam.
- Chill the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 1 hour, to help prevent them spreading too much as they bake.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with a piece of nonstick baking paper or parchment paper.
- Place the chilled cookies 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 11 minutes, just until the edges are set, and the color is a pale golden brown. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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