Simple & Quick Gluten Free Thumbprint Cookies

We live in the coolest neighborhood. It used to be a huge, thick, wooded area, and many of our neighbors are the original owners of the homes that were built there decades ago. There are trees everywhere, which means fantastic scenery and privacy, but we still have neighbors, and I love that.

I try to check in on a few of our elderly neighbors throughout the cold, winter months. They love to see the girls, and I love to bring a jar of soup to warm them up. Toward the end of December I have the girls bring some simple thumbprint cookies to them to wish them merry Christmas, and for a couple of them that don’t have family near, I think it really makes their holiday.

This is a great, quick dough to make up for these fun cookies.

It’ simplicity is perfect for older kids interested in doing kitchen tasks by themselves, as well as toddler attention spans eager to poke their thumb in the dough. Their little thumbs make the perfect little indent to hold the jam too!

I usually pull jam from the freezer for the middle of the cookies. We made blueberry jam last summer, so that is what we used this year, and that one always turns out really pretty. Strawberry or raspberry jams make a very festive red – but use whatever kind you have on hand! They all work nice!

I think it took my 5 year old and I 15 minutes start to finish to get the dough made, onto the tray, and into the oven – they make the perfect, quick addition to a cookie platter to pass at a party!

Or! A great Christmas Eve night project to leave out for Santa!

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Tips:

• This batch makes 18 small cookies. You can double or triple up if you are feeding a crowd!
• You can make the dough up ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
• Use multiple different jams so each one has a different color! I use whatever we have in the freezer from the previous summer jam making – we made blueberry jam last summer so that is what we used!
• If you are not using homemade jam, just be sure to check the ingredients – just avoid the corn syrup based ones, and any that have added food colorings.
• I have a Silpat liner for each of my baking sheets – they make clean up so much easier.
• If you want to take a look at more holiday baking try these great gluten free gingerbread cookies! They are too easy!