Grape Thumbprint Cookies
Grape Thumbprint Cookies are delicious kid-friendly cookies. I love grape jam on peanut butter sandwiches. My husband prefers strawberry jam, but I’ve always enjoyed Concord grape jam. It’s been a favorite for years. Maybe because when I was growing up we always had strawberry jam on our Peanut Butter Sandwiches and I grew tired of it.
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So when I had an opportunity to make Thumbprint Cookies for the kids in our Vacation Bible School at church a few weeks ago, I thought to myself, what better jam could I use then one of my all-time favorites? And, of course, grape jam and cookies go so well together anyway!
These delightful cookies are really easy to make too. They don’t have very many ingredients and the whole key to making them is chilling the dough. That way the cookie dough holds up better during the heat of baking and doesn’t flatten out too much.
Any of you who follow my blog regularly know I bake a LOT of cookies. I hate flat cookies! I always seem to be tinkering with recipes to ensure cookies come out nice and puffy. I can usually tell by the texture of the dough if there is too much sugar and butter/oil to the ratio of flour.
If the dough is really moist it’s going to flatten out. That may work for a brownie, but it won’t work for a cookie. The cookies tend to crystalize in some recipes and then stick to the cookie sheets as well. 🙁 So, in this recipe in order to avoid the cookie flattening out too much, you chill the dough to offset an excessive spreading of the cookie dough while baking.
I made several versions of these delicious cookies, including Strawberry, Raspberry, Plum, Apricot and a Four-Berry. I also have one called Berry Shortbread Dreams and another called Apricot Cream Cheese Cookies, both of which are amazing. Yes, Thumbprint Cookies are delectable.
If you and your family enjoy grape jam as much as we do, then you will love these marvelous cookies. They’re not difficult, and your kids will love putting that little dab of jam into the centers. Give these kid-friendly cookies a try sometime. They will love them for after school snacks, to take to soccer practice, or to share with their friends with a cold glass of milk. Grape Thumbprint Cookies are also an inexpensive treat to make for holiday baking and cookie exchanges as well. Enjoy.
When I initially published this post in August 2014 I was really disappointed that I was not allowed to make the cookies with icing or even add a sprinkling of powdered sugar on the tops to make the appearance more pleasing. I made them as requested but knew I would want to remake these cookies with a powdered sugar glaze some time in the future.
We recently hosted a Kid’s Fest in a park in a community close to our church (July 2017) where we had all kinds of games, bounce house and food! I organized a team of folks to bake homemade cookies and thought it would be the perfect time to remake these delicious jewels. This time I omitted the eggs in the recipe to be more like a traditional thumbprint cookie. They were quite a bit easier to work with. I also added the glaze and found these cookies to be mouthwatering. I think you will too.
Grape Thumbprint Cookies are delightful!
I love grape jelly so these cookies are a win-win for me!
Every bite of Grape Thumbprint Cookies is wonderful. Adding the glaze makes them beautiful as well as delicious.
Here’s what I did.
I used these ingredients plus grape jam to make the cookies.
Place softened butter in a mixing bowl. Add sugar, salt and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
Mix with an electric mixer until well combined. (This is a double batch so amount is more than normal).
Add UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour. Bleached flour toughens baked goods.
With an electric mixer, continue mixing dough until all the flour is worked in. Chill dough at least an hour.
Remove dough from refrigerator. Shape into balls and place on greased cookie sheets.
Make an indentation with with bottom of a wooden spoon (which is smaller than a thumbprint) in each of the cookies. The larger the hole, the more the cookies spread, so this is better done with your pinky finger or a small wooden spoon handle.
Place about 1/8 teaspoon grape jelly in each indentation.
Bake cookies at 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until done. Rotate pans half way through cooking time.
I used these ingredients for the powdered sugar glaze. Whisk to combine. Spoon mixture into a zip-lock bag and cut a very smaller piece out of the corner of one side to pipe glaze over top of cookies.
Place cooled cookies on a cookie rack. Drizzle glaze over top of cookies. I drizzled the glaze into star shapes. 🙂
Your kids will love putting the jam in these cookies before they bake!
Grape Thumbprint Cookies are a great cookie for holiday cookie exchanges and Christmas parties.
These are also great for summer holiday parties like Memorial Day, Fourth of July or Labor Day. The icing in the shape of stars is very patriotic!
If you and your family enjoy grape jelly you’ll rave over these scrumptious cookies.
Here’s the recipe.
GRAPE THUMBPRINT COOKIES
(My own concoction)
Grape Thumbprint Cookies
Equipment
- 2 18x26" cookie sheet pans
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 electric mixer
- 1 wooden spoon
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 small mixing bowl
- 1 whisk
- 1 spatula
- 2 wire cooling racks
Ingredients
COOKIES:
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks_
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 2 1/4 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour bleached flour toughens baked goods
- 1/2 cup grape jelly more or less as needed
ICING:
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp. 2% milk
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
COOKIES:
- Soften butter.
- Add granulated sugar, vanilla and salt and mix with an electric mixer until well mixed.
- Add flour and continue mixing with electric mixer until well combined.
- Mixture will be thick.
- Refrigerate dough at least one hour
- Roll dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheets.
- With the bottom of a small wooden spoon, make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
- Spoon about 1/8 teaspoon of jelly into each indentation.
- Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes or until done.
- Rotate pans half way through baking time.
ICING:
- Combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.
- Allow icing to set before serving cookies.
Notes
© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen
Nutrition
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- couple of pinches of salt
- 2 to 2/14 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour (bleached flour toughens baked goods)
- ¾ cup grape jelly (more or less as needed)
- Soften butter.
- Add sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt and mix with an electric mixer until well mixed.
- Stir in flour with a wooden spoon until well combined.
- Mixture will be thick.
- Refrigerate dough at least 30 minutes.
- Roll dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheets.
- With your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
- Spoon about ¼ teaspoon of jelly into each indentation.
- Refrigerate cookies another 30 minutes or place in freezer for about 10 minutes.
- Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes or until done.
- Rotate pans half way through cooking time.
Grape Thumbprint Cookies are good for potlucks and family gatherings, too.
The nice thing about these cookies is they’re really inexpensive to make. Especially if you keep grape jam stocked in your refrigerator regularly.
Grape Thumbprint Cookies are a real treat. Your family will love them!
You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!
Grape Thumbprint Cookies
Equipment
- 2 18×26" cookie sheet pans
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 electric mixer
- 1 wooden spoon
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 small mixing bowl
- 1 whisk
- 1 spatula
- 2 wire cooling racks
Ingredients
COOKIES:
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks_
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 2 1/4 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour bleached flour toughens baked goods
- 1/2 cup grape jelly more or less as needed
ICING:
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp. 2% milk
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
COOKIES:
- Soften butter.
- Add granulated sugar, vanilla and salt and mix with an electric mixer until well mixed.
- Add flour and continue mixing with electric mixer until well combined.
- Mixture will be thick.
- Refrigerate dough at least one hour
- Roll dough into balls and place on greased cookie sheets.
- With the bottom of a small wooden spoon, make an indentation in the center of each cookie.
- Spoon about 1/8 teaspoon of jelly into each indentation.
- Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes or until done.
- Rotate pans half way through baking time.
ICING:
- Combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.
- Allow icing to set before serving cookies.
3 Comments
Debbie
December 23, 2022 at 8:08 pm
Can you use other jams?
Teresa
December 24, 2022 at 8:11 am
Hi Debbie. Absolutely. I use this recipe with lemon curd, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and four-fruit along with plum!
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