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    Decorated Treats » Recipes » Cookies Recipes

    Mango Cookies

    Published: Nov 17, 2020 · Modified: Jun 22, 2023 by Priya Maha

    Jump to Recipe

    This mango cookies recipe makes delightful cookies with a buttery shortbread crust and luscious homemade mango filling. Perfect for mango lovers, this recipe combines the irresistible flavors of homemade sweet mango jam with the delicate crumble of a classic shortbread crust in pretty yellow casings.

    The cookies are eggless, easy to make and make great treats for Christmas and other holidays.

    Mango jam filled cookies in a plate.
    Easy Mango Cookies - Shortbread Cookies with a Tropical Twist
    Jump to:
    • ❤️Why you will love this recipe
    • 📋Ingredients
    • 🧾Substitution and variations
    • 👩🏻‍🍳How to make
    • 🍽️Serving & storage
    • 💡Expert tips
    • 💭FAQs
    • ❤️More recipes you will love ❤️
    • 📖Recipe

    ❤️Why you will love this recipe

    • Made using my all butter shortbread recipe, I turned the plain shortbread cookie recipe into super yummy mango shortbread thumbprint cookies.
    • These mango cookies 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 these mango 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 mango cookies are fantastic for vegetarians too.

    Like this mango cookies recipe? Here are my other posts you should check out too:

    • Mango Jam Recipe
    • Homemade Strawberry Jam
    • Classic Shortbread Cookies
    • Snowflake Sugar Cookies
    • Brown Sugar Shortbread (Quick and Easy Cut Out Cookies)
    • Pineapple Jam Recipe (Without Pectin)
    • Almond Oatmeal Cookies

    📋Ingredients

    • Butter - I use salted butter. The salt enhances the taste of the shortbread crust in the cookies. If using unsalted butter, add a small pinch of fine salt to the flour when mixing the dough.
    • Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - either granulated sugar or powdered sugar will work for this recipe. Avoid using coarse sugar as it will leave specks of sugar on the cookies after baking.
    • All purpose flour - sift to break any lumps.
    • Mango jam - use smooth jam, without any fruit chunks.

    *Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*

    🧾Substitution and variations

    • You can add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the cookie dough before adding the sugar for a vanilla flavored cookie crust. You can also add mango extract or mango essence for a mango flavored cookie.
    • Mango jam can be replaced with any other fruit jam. For easy filling, it helps if the jam is smooth and without obvious fruit chunks.

    This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!

    👩🏻‍🍳How to make

    Mixing the dough

    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 (with an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer)) before adding the flour to form a dough). Both ways are fine and for these mango cookies, I used the rubbing in method.

    A poster of 6 images show to how mix shortbread cookie dough.
    1. Place butter in a medium bowl.
    2. Sift in the flour.
    3. At low speed, mix the flour and butter until it turns crumbly.
    4. Add in the sugar into the flour mixture 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 cookies

    A poster of 4 images showing how to scoop the shortbread cookies dough, how to shape it into a ball, how to use a ball tool to make a dent in the center.
    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. The paper casings are optional. You can always choose not not use them. Instead, you can place the dough balls directly onto a cookie sheet or baking sheet or a parchment paper lined baking tray.
    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

    A poster of 4 images showing how to form dough balls, how to make a hole in the center, how to fill up jam and how to place them on the baking tray
    1. Deepen the hole with a narrower tool if you like the mango cookies to contain more jam. Using a narrower tool helps avoid the butter 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 mango chunks of fruit in it, it's best to remove those chunks as much as possible. Place it into a piping bag. Snip the tip and pipe it into the cookie holes until the holes are all filled up.
    4. Bake the mango cookies in a preheated oven 175 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes. Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool down to room temperature on a cooling rack before storing them in an airtight container.
    Jam filled cookies in yellow casings, against a marble background.
    Mango Jam Cookies Recipe - Easy Mango Cookies with a Tropical Twist

    🍽️Serving & storage

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

    💡Expert tips

    Avoiding cracks in the shortbread 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 mango 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. Too soft a butter or melted butter will not work for this mango shortbread cookies as 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 mango 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 the mango cookies recipe card 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 mango 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.

    Baking time

    • The baking time indicated in the recipe below is just nice for the size of my mango cookies, which is at 1 tablespoon each. If you make larger sized cookies, your baking time would need to be increased.
    • If you make the mango cookies of the same size but flatter, your baking time would need to be reduced slightly.
    A cookie cut into half. On the background is an empty yellow mini paper casing.
    Mango Cookies Recipe - Shortbread Cookies with Mango Flavor

    💭FAQs

    How to fill up jam into these thumbprint 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 jams into a corner of your zip lock bags, snip the tips and fill your cookies away!

    Can you make these cookies with other jam?

    Any jam is good for this shortbread cookies. I chose mango, and it's homemade. You can make your own 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 mango 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 to a mango puree texture in a food processor before making it.

    If you are using store-bought ones, remove any large chunks of fruits (little small chunks are fine) before filling it into your piping bags.

    ❤️More recipes you will love ❤️

    • Top view of a jar of mango jam without the lid on.
      Mango Jam without Pectin
    • Mango jelly in cups.
      Mango Jelly (without Gelatin) - How to Make Easy Mango Agar Agar
    • Round mango konnyaku jelly dessert on a grey plate.
      Konnyaku Jelly - Easy 3 Ingredients Recipe
    • A yellow jelly in a bundt shape with rosemary leaves garnish.
      Lychee Jelly (Easy Recipe with Fruits)

    Do you like this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐rating in the recipe card below and consider a review further down this page. I would love to hear from you. Thank you!

    📖Recipe

    A group of mango jam filled shortbread cookies in yellow paper casings, arranged into a circle

    Mango Cookies

    These easy mango cookies have a soft and crumbly texture with a delicious, homemade mango jam filling. Try them!
    5 from 12 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Dessert, Snack
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 52 minutes minutes
    Yield: 58 cookies
    Author: Priya Maha
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.

    Ingredients

    • 100 g granulated sugar
    • 200 g butter salted
    • 300 g all purpose flour
    • 70 g mango jam

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 175°Celsius.
    • Place butter in a medium sized bowl. Sift in the flour and mix on medium speed until the mixture turns crumbly.
    • Add sugar and stir with a spatula until it is well incorporated. The mixture should still be crumbly at this stage, but should come together when pressed.
    • Turn the mixture out onto a clean workspace and press it together to form a ball.
    • Divide the dough into about 1 tablespoon scoops.
    • Form each scoop into a round ball. Place the ball into mini sized cupcake casings.
    • Place one dough ball into each cupcake casing. Use a ball tool or the back of a wooden spoon to make a deep hole in the center.
    • Place jam in a bowl and remove any chunky fruit pieces in it. Transfer the jam into a piping bag.
    • Snip the tip of the piping bag and pipe the jam into the holes formed on each of the shortbread dough balls.
    • Place the cookies on a baking tray and bake for 12 minutes.
    • Remove the mango cookies onto a wire rack to cool to completely before storing.

    Notes

    Avoiding cracks in the shortbread 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 mango 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. Too soft a butter or melted butter will not work for this mango shortbread cookies as 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 mango 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 the mango cookies recipe card 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 mango 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.

    Baking time

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

    Nutrition

    Calories: 54kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 25mg | Potassium: 7mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 86IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg
    Tried this recipe?Mention @decorated_treats or tag #decoratedtreats!

    More Cookies Recipes (A True & Tried Collection)

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      Butterfly Pea Cookies
    • Chocolate peanut butter sandwich cookies in a plate.
      Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
    • Biscoff butter cookies on a plate.
      Lotus Biscoff Butter Cookies (Easy Cookie Butter Cookies)
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Mandy Applegate

      December 19, 2022 at 3:48 pm

      5 stars
      These didn’t only look great, they tasted great as well, will be making these mango cookies again!

      Reply
    2. Liz

      December 19, 2022 at 8:43 pm

      5 stars
      We loved the mango fillling! Such a fun and delicious way to make cookies extra special!!!

      Reply
    3. Elizabeth

      December 19, 2022 at 9:49 pm

      5 stars
      Love the mango flavor! Thanks for the recipe!

      Reply
    4. Giangi

      December 19, 2022 at 9:54 pm

      5 stars
      so tender and so delicious, thank you for the recipe

      Reply
    5. Amy Liu Dong

      December 20, 2022 at 10:30 am

      5 stars
      I love how delicious and easy to make these cookies.
      Perfect as a holiday dessert.

      Reply

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    Mango jam filled cookies in a plate.