Buttery, fruit preserve-filled shortbread cookies that are a cinch to make.

For the full recipe see below.

These cookies are a must have in your baking repertoire. Forgot to bake for that bake sale? Need a cookie platter for a dinner party? These can be dressed up or down for any cookie-tastic event! These cookies are also known as Thumbprint Cookies but Russian Tea Cakes sounds fancier so depending on the occasion name them what you’d like!

The best part about these cookies is that there are only 6 ingredients and shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to pop in the oven.

Start by creaming the butter and powdered sugar together in an electric mixer. Make sure there are no clumps of butter. If you don’t smash all of the chunks of butter then you will end up with clumps of butter in your dough which will then melt in the oven, and your cookie will turn out funky and inconsistent.

Next add your vanilla. Then dump your flour and salt in and mix until it looks like this:

Easy, right?

Roll the dough into 1-inch diameter balls.

Use a spoon to make a depression so that there is a little well for the fillings.

But we all know that this will happen when no one is looking (…hence the name “thumbprint”):

Spoon the filling of your choice into the middle. I’m a jam fan but you could use walnuts or almonds instead of preserves. I recommend using good quality preserves such as Bonne Maman (I used raspberry and strawberry). The better your filling the better the cookie because the cookie part is more for texture, and the filling is the burst of flavor.

Your cookies can hold probably from ½ to 1 teaspoon of preserves. Be careful to not overfill them because if you put too much in it will create a cookie volcano and you will have preserves all over the sides of your cookie…not pretty!

Bake at 325°F for 14-18 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned. All ovens cook a little different, so mine may take 14 minutes but yours could take up to 20 minutes. I would always suggest checking after the minimum time and keep adding small increments of time until your cookies are done. Also, ovens don’t cook evenly, so if you have two cookie sheets in at the same time rotate what racks they are on halfway through.

Pull the cookies out of the oven and transfer them to a wire rack pronto. If you’re feelin’ fancy sift some powdered sugar over the cookies once they are completely cool.

And … Voilà!