I realize these should have been on my Valentine’s Day menu, but I’m only sharing them today. We normally stick to chocolate desserts (like caramel chocolate chip cookies) in February, so these heart thumbprints really deserve centerstage today. The base is a soft, tender shortbread cookie that only contains a few basic ingredients. The only catch with this recipe is that you cannot skip the chill time. Because we want to preserve the heart shapes in the centers, after the cookies are shaped and filled with jam, they need to hit the fridge.

How to Make Strawberry Jam Cookies

If you can make space in your fridge for a cookie sheet, then you can have these adorable strawberry jam cookies with heart centers! After making the dough, it might seem a bit dry, but before you add any extra liquid, stop! Gather the dough in your hand and squeeze it a few times. If it sticks together using just the heat of your hands, it’s perfect. If it is overly dry, you can drizzle in some milk, one teaspoon at a time (yes, really) until it comes together, but be very careful doing this. Scoop and roll the dough into balls, and then dip your pinky in flour and use it to indent two sides of a heart in each cookie ball. Fill the indent generously with jelly, and then refrigerate for one hour before baking. Do not skip this step, or the cookies will spread too much on the pan. We will take other precautions to prevent overly spreading cookies, too, such as baking on a silicone mat. Should we call these strawberry jam cookies ‘pinky-prints’ instead of thumbprints?

The Ingredients

Butter. One stick of unsalted butter that has been softened at room temperature for about an hour. The best way to soften butter is to slice it up and let it rest at room temperature. It’s ready when its soft enough to make a fingerprint in it, but not overly soft so that your finger presses all the way through easily. We’re using unsalted butter and then adding ¼ teaspoon of salt to the flour. Granulated Sugar. Just ¼ cup of granulated sugar for this dough, because the recipe makes just 20 cookies. Also keep in mind that the jelly brings quite a bit of sweetness to each cookie. Egg. We need one large egg for these strawberry jam cookies. Vanilla Extract. We always bake with real pure vanilla extract. Almond Extract. This is entirely optional, but almond extract brings an interesting note to this dough. It reminds me of the flavor of wedding cake. All-Purpose Flour. Do not use anything but regular all-purpose flour for this recipe. Strawberry Jelly. It’s best to use jelly instead of jam because jam has chunks of strawberries in it. A smoother jelly is better for making very distinct heart shapes. However, you can use my small batch strawberry jam recipe if you smash it very well.

The Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes. Check on the cookies, and remove them from the oven when the edges of the bottom of the cookies are just starting to turn golden brown. Let them cool on the baking pan completely. Once cool, remove the cookies from the pan. Shortbread cookies are delicate when warm, so this is why I recommend cooling them on the pan.

Tips and Tricks for Strawberry Jam Cookies:

Other adorable cookies you would love:

Sugar Cookie Bars with gummy hearts. Caramel Brownies with melty chocolate hearts. Ritz Cracker Chocolate Heart Cookies dipped in crushed crackers. Lemon Shortbread Cookies with icing.

Butter: The best way to soften butter is to slice it up and let it rest at room temperature. It’s ready when its soft enough to make a fingerprint in it, but not overly soft so that your finger presses all the way through easily.Strawberry Jelly: Use a smooth, runny strawberry jelly for this recipe. I don’t recommend using jam, because it contains pieces of fruit, which might distort the heart shape.

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