Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies are soft, chewy delights with a rich peanut butter flavor and a sweet surprise at their center. These easy cookies feature a perfect thumbprint filled with your choice of jam or strawberry compote.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in cookie form! Let the childhood nostalgia begin. The only thing just as good as a peanut butter and jelly combo is a chocolate peanut butter combo, like Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Ganache!
Thumbprints are a traditional Christmas cookie that I'm sure many of you have memories of making! I know not everyone uses peanut butter in theirs, but I think it makes for a really fun twist of a PB+J cookie!
These fun little cookies are similar to Hershey's Kiss Cookies or as we always knew them, Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms.
If you are a big fan of peanut butter, you can also make some the best peanut butter cookies from powdered peanut butter. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies are the perfect pairing in a single bite. Finally, for more Christmas fun, why not make your own Gingerbread Cutouts!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Thumbprint cookies are easily made from pantry ingredients, so you can make these on a whim. Use strawberry jelly, grape jelly or whatever is on hand.
- Make ahead and freeze to make your holiday run even smoother. I like to freeze these and chewy molasses cookies for the holidays!
- The classic combo of peanut butter and jelly will just make you smile on a dreary winter day.
- If you love a pb&j sandwich, you'll love this peanut butter thumbprint cookies recipe!
Recipe Ingredients
- Flour: Regular all-purpose flour that you keep on hand is perfect here.
- Sugar: A combo of both brown sugar and granulated sugar add the right sweetness, texture and flavor to these cookies.
- Peanut Butter: Creamy peanut butter is best here to hold the cookies together. I use Skippy Natural Peanut Butter. The same I use in Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.
- Butter: I use unsalted in my baking so I can add just the right amount of Kosher salt to the dough.
- Kosher Salt: It's important to use the right kind of salt. Kosher salt is best and Diamond Crystal brand is my favorite.
- Jam: Use a quality jam or preserve. I love raspberry jam the best because I personally think the texture of the seeds plays so well with the cookie base but you can use your favorite jelly.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions & Variations
- Don't like seeds? Use seedless jam or any other jam in your fridge for thumbprint cookies. Try strawberry jam, orange marmalade or cherry jam for a twist on flavors from your favorite childhood sandwich.
- Other filling ideas are Nutella, chocolate ganache, caramel, or lemon curd. Use extra Nutella to make the best chocolate covered cherries!
- Give crunchy peanut butter or peanut butter chips a go for that extra texture in this pb&j cookie.
- Allergic to peanuts? You can try another nut butter such as almond butter. Be aware that sunbutter reacts with baking soda and can turn green when baked so it might not be the best choice here!
- This peanut butter cookie base is great for a few different cookies. Try using it for peanut butter blossom cookies.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you replace or add any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!
How To Make Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
Step 1: Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl with a hand mixer on medium speed.
Step 2: Add in eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter.
Step 3: Whisk dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
Step 4: Add dry to wet ingredients and stir to combine.
Step 5: Shape dough into cookie dough balls on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet then bake. Edges of the cookie will crisp up a bit but center will remain soft.
Step 6: Use a scoop or your thumb to make an indent in the center of the cookie.
Step 7: Fully cool cookies on a wire rack. When ready to serve, add a scoop of jam to each peanut butter thumbprint cookie.
Expert Baking Tips
- Use a cookie scoop to make your jelly thumbprint cookies uniform in size.
- Don't grease your baking sheet - just lining it is enough. This goes for all cookie recipes, including Lemon Blueberry Cookies.
- Don't add jam until ready to serve or your cookies will become soggy.
- Make sure your baking powder and baking soda is in date.
- Be careful when filling the center of peanut butter jelly cookies so that it does not overflow.
- For best results, allow thumbprint cookie to fully cool before filling.
Recipe FAQs
Store baked and cooled cookies, without jam, in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge. You can keep room temperature cookies for 24 hours then they start to become soggy. You can also freeze cookies for up to two months in a freezer bag stored inside an airtight container. Do not add the jam if you aren't serving right away or the cookies might become soggy.
I like to use a 1 oz cookie scoop to make the cookies. Using a scoop ensures your cookies are all the same size and shape, so that you can easily add the indent later. Then, you can use the washed cookie scoop to press a perfect circle into the top of the baked cookies. You can also use a teaspoon but it might be more difficult to get the shape you want.
Jam is the classic option here, especially since I opted for a peanut butter dough. However, you can also use Nutella or grab a jar of ice cream topping, such as caramel, fudge, or marshmallow fluff. If you grab the marshmallow fluff, try out these hot chocolate cookies!
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📖Recipe
Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies
Equipment
- 1 1oz cookie scoop
- 1 wire rack
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup peanut butter skippy natural
- 1½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt Diamond Crystal brand
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup raspberry jam
Instructions
- Mix butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy
- Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined
- Mix in peanut butter on low-medium speed until fully incorporated
- In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt and baking soda
- Add flour mix to peanut butter mixture then mix on low speed until all flour is incorporated
- Scoop 1oz balls of cookie dough onto a sheet tray lined with parchment paper then chill cookies 1 hour
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line sheet trays with parchment paper. Bake cookies 2 inches apart, on a middle or top rack, for 10 minutes
- Remove cookies from oven and allow to stand 2 minutes. Press down lightly in the center of the cookie with the back of the 1oz scoop to make an indent.
- Fill each cookie with raspberry jam then transfer to cooling rack until fully cooled
Krista
These are the best! Just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in cookie form!