Shortbread Jam Cookies - Easy Mango Thumbprint Cookies Recipe

These shortbread jam cookies are literally mango jam thumbprint cookies. They are made with a shortbread cookie base and filled with homemade mango jam in the centre. The cookies are easy to make and make great cookies for Christmas.

Made using my all butter shortbread recipe, I turned the plain shortbread cookie recipe into super yummy mango jam filled shortbread thumbprint cookies.

These shortbread cookies with jam centre are so easy to make, require very little ingredients (4 to be exact), and make a really pretty addition to your cookie box or even as a festive treat. I choose to put my jam filled cookies into tiny bright yellow paper casings. Each casing measured about 4cm in diameter at the top and 2cm in diameter at the bottom. The yellow in my mango jam (this is also homemade, by the way) matched the pretty yellow cupcake casings so perfectly well!

And since shortbread has no eggs in it, these jam filled cookies are fantastic for vegetarians too.

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How to Make Shortbread Jam Cookies

Ingredients

• Butter
• Granulated Sugar
• Plain Flour
• Mango Jam

Mixing the dough for the shortbread jam cookies

There are 2 ways in which you can mix the dough. Either through rubbing in method (mixing the butter and flour to a breadcrumbs consistency before adding the sugar to form a dough) I used in making the classic shortbread cookies here or the creaming method (creaming the butter and sugar before adding the flour to form a dough) I used in making my white chocolate matcha cookies here. Both ways are fine and for these mango jam filled shortbread cookies, I used the rubbing in method.

1. Place butter in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Sift in the flour.
3. At slow speed, mix the flour and butter until it turns crumbly.
4. Add in the sugar and continue mixing until the sugar is well incorporated.
5. Turn the dough onto a clean workspace.
6. Press it together to form a ball.

Shaping the shortbread mango jam thumbprint cookies

1. Divide the dough into about 1 tablespoon scoop sizes.
2. Form each scoop into a round ball. Place the dough ball into a mini paper casing.
3. Press the dough balls to flatten them slightly.
4. Use the back of a wooden spoon or a ball tool to form a hole in the center.

Filling the cookies centers with jam

1. Deepen the hole with a narrower tool if you like the jam filled shortbread cookies to contain more jam. Using a narrower tool helps avoid the cookie dough from cracking and still makes a large enough hole to fill in more jam.
2. Once all the balls have been formed and the holes made, it's time to fill them up with the mango jam.
3. If your jam has large chunks of fruit in it, it's best to remove those chunks as much as possible. Place the jam into a piping bag. Snip the tip and pipe the jam into the cookie holes until the holes are all filled up.
4. Bake the shortbread jam cookies at 175 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes. Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool down in a wire rack before storing them in an airtight container.

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Notes

Avoiding cracks in the the shortbread jam cookie dough

• The best way to avoid your cookie dough from cracking as you form the holes in them is by making the holes as soon as the balls are shaped. This literally means you should form one cookie ball, place it in the paper casing, and use the back of your wooden spoon to make the hole. And then repeat the process with the next dough ball.
• If you form all the balls first and then make the holes at all one go, you will end up with a lot of cracks. This is simply because the dough balls kind of like set after you form them and leave them aside. As you press them to make the holes in the center a bit later, they will crack.
• Having said that, cracks are not totally avoidable, you will still end up having some even if you follow my steps above. But you will also notice that as the cookies bake, they will puff up a little and that helps to close tiny cracks in them.

Butter should be soft but firm, and not melted

• For best results, when mixing the dough, make sure your butter is solid and only soft to the extent you are able to press your finger into it. It should not be any softer and should never ever be too soft that it does not hold shape. If the butter is too soft, your cookie dough will turn greasy, and your cookies will lose their crumbly, melt in the mouth texture.

Use granulated sugar or icing sugar

• These jam filled shortbread cookies are best made with either granulated sugar or icing sugar (powdered sugar). Coarse sugar can also be used, but your cookies will end up with specks of the sugar granules visible on them after baking.
• In my recipe below, I have indicated granulated sugar. If you are going to use icing sugar (powdered sugar), please note to use a kitchen scale to measure the sugar. This is because 1 cup of granulated sugar does not weigh the same on a kitchen scale as 1 cup of powdered sugar and your cookies will end up not tasting as good as they should.

Do not over mix or knead the dough

• There are 2 ways in which you can mix this cookie dough. The first method, which is the classic way of making shortbread cookies is to rub the butter into the flour until it turns crumbly and then adding the sugar to it.
• The second method is the creaming method. With this method, you cream the butter and sugar until it's creamy (but not too light and fluffy) and then add the flour to it.
• Either way, once all the 3 ingredients are combined, the dough would still be crumbly until you start pressing it together. This is an important point for shortbread cookies. You should only press the crumbs together to form a dough and nothing more than that. If you work the dough too much, your shortbread cookies will lose the soft crumbly texture and you will end up with shortbread cookies that are slightly chewier.

How to fill up jam into these shortbread thumbprint jam cookies

• The best way would be to fill up your jam into a piping bag and snipping a small hole at the tip. This will avoid your cookies from getting messy with jam if you use a spoon.
• If you don't have a piping bag, simply fill your jam into one corner of a zip lock bag, snip the tip and fill your cookies away!

Best jam for the shortbread cookies with jam in the middle

• Any jam is good for this shortbread with jam centres. I chose mango jam, and it's homemade. You can make your own jam or use a store-bought one.
• An important tip is to make sure the jam does not have large chunks of fruits in it, or else you will end up with messy shortbread thumbprint jam cookies with jam that is unevenly filled into the shortbread cookie holes. If you are making your own jam, it would be best to blend your fruits before making the jam.
• If you are using store-bought jam, remove any large chunks of fruits before filling it into your piping bags.

Baking time

• The baking time indicated in the recipe below is just nice for the size of my jam filled shortbread cookies, which is at 1 tablespoon each. If you make larger shortbread cookies, your baking time would need to be increased.
• If you make jam filled cookies of the same size but flatter, your baking time would need to be reduced slightly.

Storing the cookies

• These jam filled cookies last well. Once baked, let them cool completely before storing them in an airtight container. The cookies can last for a good 2 weeks.

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Here are my other posts you might want to check out:

• Mango Jam Recipe
• Homemade Strawberry Jam
• Classic Shortbread Cookies
• Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Cookies
• Snowflake Sugar Cookies
• Brown Sugar Shortbread - Quick and Easy Cut Out Cookies
• Pineapple Jam Recipe - How to Make Pineapple Jam without Pectin

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Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my shortbread jam cookies recipe:

And that's that. My super delicious, cute, homemade tropical mango jam filled shortbread cookies!

Happy baking 🙂