These gluten free thumbprint cookies look special, but they’re just lightly sweet butter cookies with a delicate sugar shell and jam or chocolate filling.
The dough isn’t the fussy kind that needs to be chilled or frozen before baking, and it still holds its shape, even if you’ve baked the holes without filling!
Why this recipe works
These tender gluten free thumbprint cookies are made of rich butter cookie dough that melts in your mouth, and they’re only lightly sweet so the butter flavor shines through.
After the cookie dough is shaped into rounds, we roll each piece in granulated sugar to create a super thin, crackly shell in the oven.
Whether you’re filling the cookies with a tangy-sweet jam that we bake in the oven, or a smooth, rich chocolate ganache after, the simple cookie dough is the same. And it doesn’t need to be chilled or frozen first. Just make sure your butter is at cool room temperature, and you’re guaranteed success!
Key recipe ingredients
It can be helpful to understand the role of each ingredient in the recipe. See the recipe card below for full ingredient amounts.
- Butter: Adds buttery flavor and a melt-in-your-mouth creamy texture. Be sure your butter is at cool room temperature, no more than 68°F, so you can whip it until creamy. If it’s greasy to the touch at all, it’s too warm and your cookies will spread too much.
- Egg yolk: Adds richness and golden color without added moisture, which helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much.
- Confectioners’ sugar: Adds sweetness and a touch of starch to help soften the cookies, and absorbs very quickly into the butter mixture.
- Vanilla: Adds depth of flavor.
- Salt: Balances sweetness and brightens buttery flavor.
- Gluten free flour blend: Provides all of the structure in the cookies, so be sure to use something well-balanced and smooth, with a superfine rice flour as a base. My favorite blends are Better Batter’s classic blend and Nicole’s Best multipurpose with added xanthan gum. Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 should also work with an added 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum, since the blend doesn’t contain enough on its own.
- Granulated sugar: Adds more sweetness to these lightly sweet cookies, and adds a gentle sugar crunch the outside.
- Jam: Adds a fruity tangy flavor and a chewy texture to these smooth, simple cookies.
- Chocolate: Melted chocolate adds a rich flavor contrast to the simple butter cookie base as an alternative to jam. Don’t bake the chocolate in the cookies or it will melt into the cookies, rather than staying in the center.
- Cream: Adding cream to the melted chocolate filling softens it into a ganache so you can bite straight through the center of the cookie.
How to make gluten free thumbprint cookies (step by step images)
You can make the raw cookie dough in a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer.
Cream the butter.
Beat room temperature butter alone for about 2 minutes until it’s creamy to increase the volume of the cookies in the oven.
Finish the cookie dough.
Add the egg yolk, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and salt and beat until well combined and dark yellow. Beat in the gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum just until well-combined.
Scoop the dough
The cookie dough should be thick but not stiff, which makes it easy to handle. Scoop it into pieces about 1 tablespoonful each. You can use a small cookie scoop (a #60 scoop works great) for even portions, or eyeball it with two spoons. Place them at least 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheet so they don’t spread into each other.
Shape rounds
Roll each mound gently between your clean palms to form a round shape. Just shape the dough, don’t pack it tightly or your cookies will be more brittle.
Roll in granulated sugar
To add sweetness and create a crispy outer shell, toss the rounds gently in a small bowl of granulated sugar, and place on the
Press holes in the rounds
Press down in the center of each round of cookie dough to create a hole about 1/2-inch wide and 3/4-inch deep. I like to use a small dowel, the tapered bottom of a whisk, or my pointer finger (oddly, your thumb is too tapered to work well). Press down until you feel the baking sheet underneath, since the cookie dough will rise in the oven and a shallow hole will close up.
Fill with jam, if using
Warm the jam gently for a few seconds in a microwave just until it’s pourable. Fill the holes all the way up to the top. Otherwise, keep the holes bare.
Bake
Bake just until the cookies are no longer glistening wet and the undersides are very lightly golden brown (10 to 12 minutes).
For empty cookies
Any empty cookie holes may have begun to close up. When the cookies are still warm, use the same tool you used to make the hole to press it down again gently.
Let cool
Let the cookies sit undisturbed for about 10 minutes on the baking sheet or until they’re stable enough to move.
Fill with chocolate ganache, if using
Warm cream until simmering, pour over chopped chocolate, and let sit until the chocolate begins to melt. Stir until smooth, and pour into any empty cookies. Shake from side to side to help settle the ganache, and let sit until mostly set. It will be only slightly less firm than the butter cookies themselves.
Expert tips
Chop cold butter to soften it
For thumbprint cookies that don’t overspread and are buttery but not greasy, you need butter at cool room temperature. Right out of the refrigerator, butter is around 35°F. The proper temperature to make the cookies is about 65°F, where it gives when pressed firmly, but doesn’t feel greasy to the touch.
To raise the temperature without overwarming the butter, remove the wrapper and chop it into 8 to 10 pieces by cross section. Separate the pieces from one another and let it sit for about 30 minutes. You can speed the process up in a few ways, but most of them with make the butter greasy.
Don’t chill the cookie dough
If you make and shape the cookie dough and then chill it before baking, the cookies won’t spread at all and won’t have that melt-in-your-mouth texture. If you do chill the raw dough, make sure it comes fully to cool room temperature (about 68°F) before baking.
Gently reshape empty cookies
If you’ve baked your cookies without jam filling so you can fill with chocolate after, press the holes down gently once more while the cookies are still warm using the same tool as before. This way, you can fit plenty of chocolate ganache inside.
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
To replace the butter, try block-style vegan butter. My favorite brands are Miyoko’s Creamery and Melt. You can also try butter-flavored Spectrum non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening in place of the butter. Be sure the shortening is at cool room temperature, and it should become fluffy when you beat it.
If you’d like to make chocolate ganache filling, try using canned coconut cream in place of heavy whipping cream. Be sure your chocolate is dairy free, and don’t use melted chocolate alone or the filling will be hard to bite through.
Egg free
In place of the egg yolk, you can try 1 1/2 tablespoons (21 grams) of neutral oil and 1/8 teaspoon extra xanthan gum.
To fill with chocolate ganache (alternate)
Prevent your screen from going dark
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Preheat your oven to 325°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.
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In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the butter and beat until creamy (about 2 minutes).
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Add the egg yolk, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and salt and beat to combine well (1 minute more).
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Add the flour and xanthan gum, and mix until fully combined. The cookie dough should be thick but not stiff.
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Scoop the dough into portions about 1 tablespoon each with a 2-inch cookie scoop (a small #60 cookie scoop works best) or 2 spoons. Place in mounds about 1 1/2-inches apart on a prepared baking sheet.
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Roll each mound of dough lightly into a ball, without packing the dough, then roll each ball in the granulated sugar to coat on all sides, and replace on the baking sheet.
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Using an index finger, small dowel or the back end of a wooden spoon, poke a deep hole in the center of each ball about 1/2-inch wide and 3/4-inch deep.
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If you plan to fill the cookies with chocolate ganache, leave the holes empty.
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Do not chill the cookie dough.
To fill with jam
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Warm the jam slightly in the microwave to make it thickly pourable. Using a small spouted measuring cup or a small spoon, fill each of the holes with the jam.
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Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cookies are set and just beginning to brown around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes.
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Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet, undisturbed, for at least 10 minutes or until firm.
To fill with chocolate ganache
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If your cookies are hollow, check for any holes that have begun to close up, and press them down again gently with your finger or the same dowel you used to create the hole.
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Place the chopped chocolate in a small heat-safe bowl. Heat the heavy whipping cream in a small, heavy-bottom saucepan or a microwave safe bowl just until it begins to simmer.
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Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and allow the mixture to sit for about 3 minutes, or until the chocolate begins to melt. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
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Using a spouted measuring cup or a small spoon, pour the ganache into the open well of each cookie. Allow the filling to set at room temperature or in the refrigerator and serve.
My favorite gluten free flour blends are Better Batter’s original blend gluten free flour and Nicole’s Best multipurpose blend (with added xanthan gum). Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour should also work, but add an additional 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum to the dry ingredients or the cookies will be too crumbly.
To make your own blend using one of my “mock” recipes, please see the all purpose gluten free flour blends page.
Nutritional information note
Nutritional information is approximate for cookies filled with jam.
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 132kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 33mg | Potassium: 7mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 218IU | Vitamin C: 0.4mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Storage instructions
Place the baked and filled cookies gently into a sealed glass container at room temperature and they’ll stay fresh for up to 5 days. For longer storage, you can freeze them, but they are relatively fragile so they’re not ideal for making too far ahead of time.
FAQs
These thumbprints are a type of gluten free butter cookies, since they’re made with only flour, sugar, butter and egg yolks. In these cookies, though, the ingredients are balanced differently to make a cookie that’s softer and a bit more fragile, since we’re not pushing the dough through a cookie press like with spritz butter cookies.
These cookies are supposed to be more delicate than sugar cookies, which are made with a full egg, not just an egg yolk, and a lot more flour for a sturdier cookie. For a similar cookie that’s less fragile, try our gluten free drop sugar cookies.
Yes, you can leave the holes open as if you were going to add the chocolate filling, but add the jam after baking instead. But the jam will remain wet, unlike when you bake the jam inside the cookies.
If your butter was too warm, your cookies will spread a lot in the oven. You’ll be able to tell because the butter won’t become fluffy during beating, and the cookie dough will feel greasy. The proper temperature is cool room temperature, between 65° and 68°F. If your butter is too warm, it won’t beat properly and the cookies may spread more in the oven.
