Vegan strawberry jam cookies are one of the easiest fancy Christmas cookies you can make. These festive beauties are chewy, buttery, and sweet with almond flavor and fruity jam filling.
Our favorite filling is Strawberry Roselle Jam, with its ruby-red color and sweet-tart flavor. However, you can choose any sweet strawberry jam you like and even mix it up with the variations below.
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🏆 Top tip
Save time and bake uniform strawberry jam cookies by shaping the dough into a log and slicing it into one-half-inch pieces before shaping and filling them.
⭐ Why it works
- Simple - recipe mixes in a bowl with a spoon.
- No chilling - mix and shape right away.
- Versatile - the basic dough can be customized with fillings.
- Gluten-free
- Vegan
🌟 Healthier cookies
Our family and friends love these eggless, gluten-free, and dairy-free thumbprint strawberry jam cookies during the holidays, whether they are vegan or not. They are so good!
Clean and pure ingredients with protein-rich almond flour make up the recipe and give you more reason to say yes to this sweet indulgence.
📋 Ingredients
Cookie dough
- Almond flour - makes the chewiest cookies that stay soft and moist. Use finely-milled almond flour.
- Raw cane sugar - this organic sugar has a semi-coarse texture just right with almond flour.
- Aquafaba - a small amount takes the place of eggs to bind cookies together and keep edges from cracking.
- Sea salt - is a must to bring out the sweetness in cookies.
- Almond extract - gives that real European Christmas cookie flavor. Be sure to include it.
- Vegan butter - the taste will make a difference, so choose the best organic brand, or make it homemade with this Ultimate Recipe For Vegan Butter.
Fillings
Not only is aquafaba terrific at replacing eggs in cookie dough, but it shows up again as the glue that makes crushed pecans stick to the raw dough before baking.
- Jam - make it colorful and slightly tart for mouthwatering cookies.
- Nuts - use finely chopped pecans or variations from the list below.
- Cinnamon sugar - mix your own with 1 part cinnamon and 3 parts raw sugar.
- Aquafaba - works like a charm to stick nuts and crushed toppings to cookie dough.
👩🏻🍳 Shaping tips
I love the fact that there isn't any scooping or rolling dough necessary with this recipe. It definitely saves time.
You may also welcome this idea if you don't enjoy sticky cookie dough collecting in the palms of your hands and appreciate evenly-sized thumbprint cookies.
Plus, thumbprint cookies won't crack on the edges as much while baking when shaped with the tips in the recipe card. I think you'll be happy you didn't have to roll each individual cookie into a ball.
Bake strawberry jam cookies for 18 minutes or until the bottoms are golden and the strawberry jam has bubbled in the oven. Let them rest for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a rack to cool.
📖 Variations
The recipe card below has full instructions for making three types of thumbprint cookies filled with strawberry jam. I recommend starting with these delicious combinations before branching out.
Once you're familiar with the recipe, go ahead and get creative with your own variations from this list of suggestions.
Jam variations
- Use any of the following colorful jams to make thumbprint cookies that are pretty as well as crave-worthy: raspberry, apricot, pineapple, blackberry, guava, mango, cranberry, peach, and orange marmalade.
Chocolate or caramel
- Use chocolate chunks or soft caramel pieces chopped into one-half-teaspoon-sized pieces.
Nut coatings
- Chop nuts very fine and dip the bottom and sides of the shaped cookie dough in aquafaba before coating. Then use any of the following: walnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and sesame seeds.
Other coatings
- Sugar and spice coatings that will stick directly to cookie dough include maple sugar, colored baking sugar, and baking sprinkles. You'll want to chop finely or crush the following and use aquafaba dip just like with nut coatings: coconut, pretzels, and cornflakes.
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- Pack almond flour firmly into a measuring cup or weigh out 175 grams for each batch.
- Fill each strawberry jam cookie with one-half of a teaspoon of jam. The jam will bubble out of the centers if you use too much.
- Lightly coat cookies that will be dipped in nuts with aquafaba. A small amount is enough to stick nuts to the cookie dough.
- Finely chop any nuts or pretzels for coating. Shredded coconut and sesame seeds are perfect as is.
- Bake cookies until set and the strawberry jam bubbles. The bottoms of cooled cookies should be golden.
- Cool strawberry jam cookies for ten minutes on the baking sheet to firm before transferring them to a rack.
💭 FAQ
Yes, the recipe can be doubled or tripled. For best results, however, make each batch individually measuring ingredients into a separate bowl for each batch.
Yes, you can make the cookie dough in advance and keep it for 3 days in the refrigerator. Take your dough out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before shaping and baking.
🧁 More sweet treats
Let us know if you try this recipe! Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below, and don’t forget to tag a photo #poppyswildkitchenrecipes on Instagram @poppyswildkitchen Aloha!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Strawberry Jam Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie dough
- 1 ¼ cups fine almond flour firmly packed, 175 grams
- 3 tablespoons vegan butter 42 grams
- 4 tablespoons raw cane sugar 60 grams
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon aquafaba strained from a can of chickpeas
- ½ teaspoon pure almond extract
Fillings to decorate
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jam
- 1 tablespoon aquafaba
- ¼ cup pecans finely chopped, 62 grams
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Soften butter
- Place almond flour, vegan butter, raw sugar, sea salt, almond extract, and aquafaba in a bowl. Let sit while gathering strawberry jam and toppings. This will give time for the vegan butter to soften.
Prep decorations
- Finely chop nuts and mix cinnamon sugar. Place each topping in a small bowl with room to roll the cookie dough in.
- Measure out strawberry jam and aquafaba into separate small bowls. Set aside with other toppings.
Mix cookie dough
- Stir all the cookie dough ingredients together and mix well. Use hands to shape into one uniform mass.
Shape cookies
- Shape cookie dough into a six-inch-long log. I find it easiest to fashion a square log and flip it a couple of times to smooth the edges.
- Cut the log of cookie dough into one-half-inch slices. A ruler is helpful if you want very uniform cookies.
- Take a slice of cookie dough, round the edges, and lay it flat on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press a thumbprint in the center.
Plain jam-filled
- Spoon one-half of a teaspoon of jam into the center of the cookie. Don't overfill.
Cinnamon sugar jam-filled
- Take a slice of cookie dough, round the edges, and coat the bottom and sides with cinnamon sugar. Place it on the cookie sheet lined with parchment. Press an indentation and fill the center with one-half of a teaspoon of jam. Don't overfill.
Nut coated jam-filled
- Take a slice of cookie dough and round the edges. Use your fingers to moisten the top, bottom, and sides of the piece of dough with aquafaba. Press all sides into finely chopped nuts and lay the slice on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press an indentation and fill the center with one-half of a teaspoon of jam. Don't overfill.
Bake cookies
- Bake for 18 minutes or until set and the jam has bubbled. The bottoms of cooled cookies should be golden.
- Let cookies cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes and then transfer with a spatula to a wire baking rack.
Store
- Place cooled cookies in a cookie tin with a loose lid. Cookies keep well at room temperature for 5 days.
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