Patriotic Red, White & Blue Thumbprint Cookies

These tasty Red, White & Blue Thumbprint Cookies are all dressed up with the prettiest patriotic colored sprinkles and icing for a festive celebration.

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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 has 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.

Ingredients

Let's bake

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. and 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 together 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 just 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 you make the dough ball roll it in the bowl of sprinkles and place the ball 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 get cool and harden and the sprinkles will not stick, then 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, then remove them from the oven and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Sometimes the indentation will not be as deep once the cookies are baked, just 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, it usually is about ⅓ 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 these 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. Make sure to check it out for some fabulous red, white, and blue desserts.

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
• Teaspoon
• Cookie sheets
• Cooling rack
• Airtight container

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 Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog.  Please leave a comment to say Hello or just let me know what you are baking these days, I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Have any questions or just want to chat about the recipe? Contact me here, 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 both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.