Almond Raspberry Cookies for Valentine’s Day

These delicious Almond Raspberry Thumbprint cookies are simple, fun to make, and perfect for Valentine’s Day!

If you want to to make a special treat this February 14th, this is the post for you! The base of the cookie is shortbread so it comes together in a snap.

**Side note-This is not my original recipe. I made a few changes and attempted to make it Valentine’s Day themed . You can find the original recipe here.**

Shortbread is a real basic cookie dough. All you need is flour, sugar, and butter. It makes for a rich, buttery, delightfully satisfying cookie. I usually like to bake mine until they are just barely brown on the bottom. This makes for a soft but still kind of chewy cookie. It’s so good!

You could make just the dough, roll it into balls, bake it and call it good. They would be delicious with some powdered sugar and a glass of milk. But, what really makes these Valentine’s day cookies shine is the extract and the raspberry jam.

I love Raspberry Jam

Growing up we had two flavors of jam. Grape and strawberry. Very respectable for a PB&J sandwich. Not really my choice for cookies. But raspberry, now we’re talking.

The first time I remember having raspberry jam was when I was in college. It was at a singles get together. That part was nothing but Awkward. It involved a trampoline and the guy I liked marveling that holding my hand was like holding a child’s hand! Not romantic.

Our hostess was a super homemaker. Big beautiful house with soft, clean carpets, great decorating skills. And she had made homemade rolls and raspberry jam she had cooked and canned from her own dang plants. Talk about homemaking goals.

It may have been that I was living off of a block of colby-jack cheese and ritz crackers, but those rolls and that jam were the most delicious thing I had eaten up to that point. And that’s when raspberry jam became Fancy Jam in my mind.

Let’s get to the recipe!

Make sure to print and save the recipe to make over and over again. It’s so fast and simple! It’s also a big hit for Christmas cookie exchanges or parties.

Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies Ingredients:

Directions for making Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and granulated sugar together.
3. Add salt and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
4. Mix in flour

5. Scoop the dough into balls and place on an ungreased baking tray. Roll them in your hands a little to smooth the dough and flatten slightly.

6. Make an impression in each doughball using whatever shape you like. Traditionally, you use your thumb. In this case I’m using a little heart shaped pencil sharper. I used a little bit of plastic wrap on top of the dough to keep it from getting stuck in the sharpener.

7. Fill each heart impression with about a 1/4 teaspoon of the raspberry jam or the filling of your choice

8. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Just until the bottoms are a little brown when you lift it up and look underneath but you don’t really see any color on top. (My cookies spread out a little because of the melted butter so they browned more than I intended. But Nathan likes crunchier cookies so it worked out. And they were still so delicious!)

9. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool completely before icing if you want them to look pretty. But eating them while they are still warm is amazing! Just let them sit long enough so the jam doesn’t burn your tongue. Cause it is molten-lava hot!

10. To make the icing: whisk together confectioners sugar, 3/4 teaspoon almond extract, and milk (one teaspoon at at time) until it’s thin enough to drizzle over the cookies.
11. Enjoy!

How to Store Cookies?

You can store them in an airtight container for about a week. Or you can throw them in the freezer and they’ll be good for 3-6 months.

Jessica’s Tips for Making Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

• You can make the dough ahead of time for a week in the fridge or keep it in the freezer for about a month. Just let it come to room temperature before shaping and filling.
• You can use vanilla extract in place of the almond extract.
• Use softened butter instead of melted like I did on accident. This helps the dough keep its shape when it bakes.
• If the dough is really crumbly when you’re pressing the heart shape, throw it back in to the bowl and add a teaspoon of milk at a time until it’s easier to shape. You don’t want it to be sticky though.
• Use a cookie scoop for consistency in cookie size
• Use parchment paper on your pan for easier clean up.

Variations

This recipe is so versatile that you could add pretty much any filling you wanted into the thumbprint. But I suggest changing the extract to vanilla or leaving it out entirely if you’re not sure about the almond extract jiving with the new filling. Here are some suggestions for other fillings:

• Strawberry Jam
• Beauty Berry Jam- (you can find my recipe here)
• Orange Marmalade
• Nutella

What’s your favorite kind of thumbprint cookie?

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