These tasty Red, White & Blue Thumbprint Cookies are all dressed up with the prettiest patriotic colored sprinkles and icing for a festive celebration.
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
This page may contain affiliate links, please see my full disclosure for policy details.
Cookie Alert! These bite-sized cookies are buttery, crunchy, very addictive, and maybe the most colorful cookies ever!
Thumbprint cookies are a classic and today’s recipe is covered in lots of colorful bling for a very patriotic cookie to celebrate July 4th, Memorial Day, or any day you want a delicious and colorful treat.
I have a fondness for these July thumbprints and I also make them in red and pink for Valentine’s Day Thumbprint Cookies for my sweetie, and these Apricot Jam Thumbprint Cookies are delicious anytime, but they always show up during the holidays.
And, if you want more 4th of July cookies both of these cookie recipes are fun, festive, and delicious. Bake these 4th of July Sugar Cookies Bars or these rolled Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles that have a surprise red cookie in the middle.
Why we love these cookies
- Seriously, it’s the sprinkles and the colorful icing that have us hooked.
- You gotta love an easy cookie recipe and this one has a no-fuss batter, with simple pantry ingredients made in one bowl.
- No chilling is required to make these cookies, just mix, roll into balls, roll in sprinkles, bake, and ice.
- These tasty cookies are buttery rich and have the perfect amount of sweetness.
- These are definitely a celebration cookie, and you can easily change the sprinkles and icing colors to make your event or holiday extra special.
Cookie Ingredients
How To Make Thumbprint Cookies: Step-By-Step
I promise you won’t be in the kitchen all day making these cookies, and you get to play with sprinkles!
Step 1. Set your oven to 350 degrees F. prepare a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper.
Step 2. In a large mixing bowl add the softened butter, egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla and mix with a handheld mixer on medium speed until thoroughly combined. You can also mix this dough with a stand mixer.
Step 3. Add the flour and salt and mix at low speed until the flour is incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Step 4. Pour the sprinkles into a large bowl that will be big enough to roll the dough balls around.
Step 5. With a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, scoop out the dough and then roll the dough into 1″ balls between the palms of your hands. Immediately after making the dough ball, roll it in the sprinkles bowl and place it on the cookie sheet.
It is important that you make the dough balls one at a time and roll them in the sprinkles. The sprinkles will only stick to the dough balls when they are warm and sticky from rolling the dough with your hands. If you let the dough balls sit too long, they will cool and harden, and the sprinkles will not stick, and you will have bald cookie dough balls.
Step 6. Repeat making the sprinkle-covered dough balls, and then using a teaspoon measuring spoon, press down on the center of each cookie to make an indent. To do this the old-fashioned way just press your thumb into the dough ball to create the indentation.
Step 7. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, remove them from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack. Sometimes the indentation will not be as deep once the cookies are baked; press the teaspoon back into the indent to deepen it again.
Make the icing
Step 8. Make the icing by mixing the powdered sugar, corn syrup, and milk together in a medium-sized bowl.
Step 9. Separate the icing into three small bowls, usually about 1/3 cup for each bowl. Add a drop of the red food coloring to one bowl and the blue food coloring to another bowl, and leave one bowl just white. Mix the food coloring into the white icing, and if needed add more food coloring to get the color you want.
Step 10. Once the cookies are completely cooled, use a small spoon to drop the icing into the cavity of each cookie.
Step 11. Let the cookies sit for an hour to harden the icing. Store in an airtight container for five days.
Celebrating with cookies
More delicious cookies
- Cookies with sprinkles are always a favorite, and these Raspberry Sprinkle Cookies have a surprise middle layer to make them extra fun to eat.
- These favorite Ginger Spice Cookies have three types of ginger for a deliciously chewy cookie
- Try these Easy Raspberry Peach Crumb Bar that is buttery, fruity and so easy to make.
- These cookies are part of 15 Favorite 4th of July Desserts post. Check it out for some fabulous red, white, and blue desserts.
Not cookies, but just as colorful. These Red, White & Blue Jello Cups are ridiculously easy to make and are perfect for serving with these cookies.
If the cookie dough cracks after you put the thumbprint in it, just take your fingers and press the dough back together again.
Even though these cookies are called thumbprints because you are supposed to use your thumb to make an indent, I find using the teaspoon to make the deep indent easier and prettier. But for fun, make a few with your thumb!
You can freeze the baked and iced cookies in an airtight freezer container. If you are stacking the cookies, place a piece of parchment or wax paper between the layers. To defrost, set the cookie out in a single layer.
Thank Sweden for these delectable thumbprint cookies. They call them Hallongrotta, which is traditionally filled with jam.
Equipment needed
- Large mixing bowl
- Hand-held mixer (or a stand mixer)
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Cookie scoop – tablespoon size
- Medium-sized bowl
- Small whisk or fork
- Three small bowls
- Cookie sheets
More To Make And Eat
Subscribe here for more great recipes, and follow One Hot Oven for more tasty sweet and savory recipes! Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook
Patriotic Red, White & Blue Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup AP flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 ounces red, white and and blue sprinkles
Powdered sugar icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoons light corn syrup
- red gel food color
- blue gel food coloring
Instructions
Making cookie dough
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., and prepare cookie sheets parchment paper or a Silpat
- In a large mixing bowl add the softened butter, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix with a handheld mixer on medium speed until completely mixed and creamy. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula. You can also use a stand mixer for this.
- Mix in the flour and salt at low speed until combined and the dough holds its shape.
- Place the nonpareils in a bowl big enough to roll the dough balls.
- Shape the dough into 1" balls using a small cookie scoop or a teaspoon, then immediately roll in the nonpareils. The warmth of your hands helps make the dough balls a little soft so the nonpareils will stick better.
- Place the balls 1" apart on the baking sheets and using a teaspoon measuring spoon press and indent into each cookie. You can also use your thumb to make the indent.
- Bake for 10 minutes until lightly browned, then remove from oven to cooling rack.
Making the powdered sugar icing
- Add the powered sugar to a medium-sized bowl and use a small whisk or a fork to break up any lumps in the sugar.
- Add the milk and corn syrup then mix until the icing is smooth.
- Separate the icing into three small bowls, about 1/3 cup of each. Add a drop of red food coloring to one bowl, blue food coloring to another bowl then stir until the food coloring is combined. If you want a deeper color add a small amount of food color and stir.Now you have red, white and blue icing colors.
- With a small teaspoon drop icing into each cookies thumbprint. It usually takes about an hour for the icing to harden, at this point store the cookies in an airtight container for up to four day.
Notes
Try this other One Hot Oven Thumbprint Cookies Valentine’s Day Thumbprints in red, pink and white, they are so pretty! Apricot Pecan Thumbprints are classic cookie to bake for the holidays.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition
Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog. Please leave a comment to say hello or tell me what you are baking these days; I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Have any questions or want to chat about the recipe? Please visit my About page for information, and I’ll be happy to help!
About Jere’
From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven, sharing sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.
22 cookies my butt. I had to use 1/2 tsp and still only got 12 cookies out of the batch.
Sorry to hear you had problems measuring out these cookies. 1 teaspoon will make 22 cookies. You can try measuring the dough if you have a scale. Each dough ball should be 4 ounces. Hope that helps.