Cherry Thumbprint Shortbread Cookies
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A delicious and unique thumbprint shortbread cookies that everyone will love, these Cherry Thumbprint Cookies are only 5-ingredients and take less than 15 minutes to whip up but are one of the most delicious cookies you will eat this holiday season!
Cherry Thumbprint Cookies Recipe
Buttery, rich, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread and juicy, sweet maraschino cherries come together to make a decadent 5-ingredient cookie that looks super cute and tastes even better.
Of all of the cookies I put out at our Christmas party this year, these Cherry Thumbprint Cookies were the first to disappear! They are straight-forward and simple but completely irresistible.
But the best part was that my daughter was able to make over half of these cookies completely independently. I just walked her through the recipe and then showed her how to form the first few cookies. I love getting the kids helping in the kitchen and this foolproof shortbread recipe removes all of the frustration of traditional shortbread so you can just focus on making memories and baking cookies.
I think it would be super cute to use a mix of the green maraschino cherries as well as the red.
If maraschino cherries are too sweet for you, you can replace this with regular (pitted) cherries or another favorite fruit filling.
Tips for Perfect Shortbread
- Use good-quality butter and don’t substitute with margarine. You want a butter that you enjoy the flavour of because it will form the basis of most of the shortbread’s flavour.
- Use room temperature butter that has been sitting out for a few hours or overnight. Don’t use any hacks like grating or microwaving the butter as you will end up with an over-worked dough.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until very light colored, as you want the sugar to really dissolve well.
- If desired, you can replace a bit of the all-purpose flour with rice flour to give the cookies a lighter texture, but don’t go over replacing half of the flour or the dough will be frustratingly delicate.
- You can chill the dough twice, and it’s a good idea if you’ve spent too much time shaping the dough or have been distracted. You want the butter to be cold when it goes into the oven so it doesn’t spread or overcook – plus refrigeration helps develop the flavour.
- If doing a second chill, it doesn’t need to be for long and you don’t need to cover the dough – in fact, leaving it uncovered for 20-30 minutes in your fridge will help dry out the butter a bit and help the cookies become a bit more light and crisp with baking.
- Ensure that all of the cookies are as close to the same size as possible to ensure even baking. An easy way to do that with thumbprint cookies is to use a cookie scoop or a tablespoon to portion out the dough before rolling and imprinting.
- When forming the shortbread, try not to overwork the dough as it will result in tough cookies.
- You don’t want any browning in the baked cookies – you just want them to be light and set. The minute one cookie starts to show some cracks, the cookies are done.
Can these shortbread cookies be frozen? Yes – that’s one of the best things about shortbread is that it freezes beautifully and the flavour even improves with freezing – and one of my secret indulgences is sneaking a frozen shortbread cookie out of the freezer and enjoying it super cold.
To store, use parchment or wax paper in between layers of the shortbread and store in an airtight freezer bag or your favourite freezer containers (this set of freezer containers is a crazy bargain).
Cherry Thumbprint Shortbread Ingredients
Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.
Tip: to take these cherry thumbprint cookies over the top, add a chocolate or icing drizzle overtop.
Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowl
- Electric mixer <– this is a great hand mixer if you don’t want to make the investment into a stand mixer
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Sheets
- Cooling racks <– I have and love these tiered cooling racks, they save so much counter space and are also oven-safe
- Small bowl, for holding the sprinkles
- Cookie Scoop
How to Make Cherry Thumbprint Cookies
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, at least 2 minutes.
Beat in vanilla extract and then slowly beat in the flour until just incorporated.
Use a cookie scoop to portion out the dough on the prepared cookie sheets, about 1″ apart.
Use an inverted teaspoon to press down on the cookies, flattening them and making a small dip in the center of each cookie.
Press a maraschino cherry securely into the indent on each shortbread.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown.
Cool on the cookie sheet for about 15 minutes.
Makes 35-40 cookies.
Pin this Easy Cherry Thumbprint Cookie for your next holiday baking session:
Grab your free printable recipe card for our cherry thumbprint shortbread cookie recipe:
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Cherry Thumbprint Shortbread Cookies
Melt-in-your-mouth, buttery shortbread cookies with a sweet and juicy maraschino cherry center - ready in less than 25 minutes and with just 5 ingredients!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Butter, softened
- 3/4 cup White Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour* See note about flour
- 35-40 Maraschino Cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, at least 2 minutes.
- Beat in vanilla extract and then slowly beat in the flour until just incorporated.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion out the dough on the prepared cookie sheets, about 1" apart.
- Use an inverted teaspoon to press down on the cookies, flattening them and making a small dip in the center of each cookie.
- Press a maraschino cherry securely into the indent on each shortbread.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Cool on the cookie sheet for about 15 minutes.
Notes
*NOTE: Measuring flour properly for baking involves using a spoon to move the flour from the bag/container to the measuring cup and then using the back of a knife to scrape off excess flour when the measuring cup is full. Digging a measuring cup into a bag to measure and then using your finger to brush off excess will result in too much flour being added as the flour will be compressed.
There have been some comments saying they had issues with the cookies being too hard with 3.5 cups flour; you can start with 3 cups and see how the dough looks, but please note that I've made this recipe dozens of times and have not had this issue.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
40Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 124Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 55mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 0gSugar: 6gProtein: 1g
Sugar, Spice and Glitter uses an auto-generate nutrition calculator. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate unless analyzed in a scientific lab, so these should be considered more of a guideline than medical information.
I hope your family loves these buttery cherry shortbread cookies as much as mine did!
For more scrumptious cookies, check out our full cookie recipe collection here:
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These cookies are delicious. I sub almond extract for vanilla. Perfect every time I’ve baked them!
Jennifer
I am very disappointed in your recipe for the Cherry Thumbprint Shortbread Cookies. I am not an expert baker but something is terribly wrong with your recipe and instructions. I used three and one half cups of flour, shown on your recipe as “3 1/2 “. Should that have been shown as 3 half cups ? I chilled the dough overnight and ended up with dry granular dough that could not be clumped into wet spoon fulls. I baked 16 spoon fulls but did not get solid cookies. Your comments please.
Do you have a picture you could send me? I’m having a hard time picturing what tour dough was like.
It sounds like either the butter and sugar were not creamed together well enough or the dough was overworked after the flour was added – you really want the sugar and butter to be almost a white color when done beating, and stop mixing the dough once the flour is JUST incorporated.
I wish I had read the comments before I tried this recipe. I had the same exact problem. I thought 3.5 cups of flour was a lot when I was making the recipe, but trusted in the process. I’m sorry I did. A waste of ingredients and money.
These were so hard! I could barely work the dough into balls let alone press them down with a spoon. My husband who always says he loves everything I make hated them. Don’t try this.
Hi Amanda,
I’m sorry you had a bad experience – it sounds like either the butter and sugar weren’t creamed fully or the dough once the flour was added was overworked. Shortbread is really tricky, as underworked it will fall apart easily, overworked, dry and crumbly.
I too recommend adding less flour, it was very crumbly. Nothing to do with creaming the butter and sugar for me.
Just way too much flour
Thank you, Karen, I’m sorry you had a bad experience. This recipe has been popular for a couple of years and this week is the first I’ve had complaints, so I have adjusted the recipe card to include flour measuring instructions (not blaming/accusing anyone of that, but more troubleshooting in case) and also included the suggestion to start with 3 cups, just in case. Not sure why this issue is popping up, as I’ve made it dozens of times without issue, but I’m frustrated that it is happening because I take pride in creating and sharing recipes that people can rely on.
This is my go to recipe for shortbread cookies; we love it.
I do beat the dough longer than you suggest and these cookies never disappoint! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for leaving a comment, Patty! I’m so glad you like them!
Jennifer, what a great recipe. I followed the recipe to a T and my whole family loved them. They turned out so well. I made this cookie a few years ago and have been looking to recreate them ever since. Thank you for sharing this! 🙂
Aw, I’m so glad! Thanks for coming back and leaving a comment to tell me 🙂