Oh man, I loved these as a kid. I would always pull the hardened jam bit off the cookie and eat it first. (I was one of those 'disassemblers' - I'd eat the cookie around the chocolate chips, eat the chocolate off the peanut butter cup, eat the creamy filling off the twix, etc.)

Yummalicious. Made these last week with bing cherry preserves and an almond extract/10X sugar drizzle.
I sometimes use the handle end of a fat wooden spoon to make the indentations.
And sometimes, I use the other end of a fat wooden spoon to administer corporal punishment.
(j/k... ;-)

These cookies look and sound yummy. I've got a big sweet tooth and so does my daughter. I'm definetly going to try this recipe. I've seen thumbprint cookies before, I just never knew the name of them. Now I know and can't wait to make and especially try them for the first time.

I do have one question though. Can you use a little melted chocolate in the middle except jam? Has that ever been tried? If so, when should I add the chocolate? Before or after the baking? Thank You!!

Never tried chocolate, if it works out for you, let us know! ~Garrett

I use a plastic syringe to fill thumbprints. Much faster (especially as my friend love micro-sized cookies). I fill the cookies after baking and heat the jam up a bit to make it more fluid.

Suzanne, chocolate works fine. Just fill the cookies after baking when they are cooled down (the syringe technique works well for chocolate, too (-; ) You can use molten Nutella as well.

My daughter and German exchange student (I call her my German daughter) made these today. They were fantastic! We had raspberry, apricot and strawberry. Great spring break food for a rainy day.

Loved them!!! Made them for a family gathering and they all liked it very much :D half of them plain and the other half with nuts and those were more delicious (I used toasted peanuts and almonds).

Although I had a hard time with the dough because it wasn't holding together easly and I thought they would fall apart anytime. They weren't holding themselvs together like the ones in the picture, there was few cracks in each one so I had to add some oil to the daugh to pull it together more plus I added a little bit of orange peel to the butter mixture which gave the cookies a delicious aroma and taste which everyone noticed and loved, also I used light raspberry jam, it was perfect, thanks for sharing these yummy cookies.

Can I use whole wheat flour in this recipe? I have white whole wheat flour that I use for gravy, but would like to try using it when I bake as well.

Shouldn't be a problem. Give it a try and let us know how it goes! ~Garrett

I remember a bakery that sold these with chocolate or icing in addition to jam.

What kind of chocolate would work best?

Maybe a Hershey's kiss? Never use anything but jam for these myself. ~Garrett

These are so buttery and delicious.
I made some with chopped pecans and some without nuts. I found it easier to use my thumb to make the indentation, a spoon tended to crumble the dough. I used strawberry jam, orange marmalade and also melted chocolate. I melted the chocolate and spooned it into the cooked cookie. Personally I thought the orange marmalade were the most delicious. They are so pretty and really delicious. Thanks, Garrett!

We just made these with rave reviews!
We've already made the nut version filled with melted chocolate chips for ages, calling them thimble cookies. Today, we switched to jam filled ones with your inspiration. We made them tiny and stuck into clusters of three with grape, strawberry and apricot jam. They looked like beautiful clusters of jewels. These have been dubbed "Jeweled Thumbprints" and will forever more have a place alongside the thimble cookies at Christmas!