Elevate your holiday baking with festive Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies. Made with just four simple ingredients, these cookies are vegan, gluten-free, and absolutely irresistible!

If you have leftover cranberries after making the sauce, try my Cranberry Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies or Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies on a baking sheet.
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Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies are the easiest dessert you’ll make this holiday season. The cookie dough comes together right in your mixer and the entire process from start to finish takes only 30 minutes! These cookies are perfect for a holiday party or a sweet homemade gift or even for a cookie exchange with your friends and neighbours.

I love this recipe because it lets you turn healthy ingredients into delicious cookie perfection! For similar healthy cookie recipes, be sure to check out my Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies and Sugar-free Nutella Thumbprint Cookies.

How To Make Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients

  • Butter — To make these cookies vegan, feel free to use vegan butter or unsalted butter.
  • Sugar (granulated sugar)— You can also use your preferred natural sweetener.
  • Vanilla extract — A splash of vanilla extract adds a nice, warm flavor.
  • Almond flour — The almond flour makes the cookies gluten-free and low-carb.
  • Cranberry sauce — I use my homemade cranberry sauce, but sugar-free cranberry jam also works great.

ps: This cranberry thumbprint cookies doesn’t require egg, salt or purpose flour.

Pre-measured ingredients for Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies.

Instructions

Prepare the cookie dough:

  • Before you begin, preheat the oven to 350°F and line your baking sheet with either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  • Fit your electric mixer with the whisk attachment and beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until it becomes fluffy. Then, whisk in the vanilla extract.
  • Add ½ cup of almond flour at a time, mixing the dough until it is well combined.
  • Note: The dough will be a little crumbly, but it will stick together when you shape the cookies.
Left: Butter and sugar whisked together in a bowl. Right: Cookie dough in a bowl.

Press and shape the cookie dough:

  • Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and press it together to form a ball and place on the prepared baking sheet.
  • Then, with the tip of your thumb, press an indentation into each ball. If the dough cracks, you can re-seal it by smoothing it out with your fingers, but it’s also totally fine to have a few cracks.
Left: Cookie dough rolled into balls. Right: Cookie dough balls with the thumbprint pressed in.

Bake and fill the cookies:

  • Place the cookies in your preheated oven and bake for 12-14 minutes until they’re golden brown.
  • Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes, as they will be very fragile when they come out of the oven.
  • Using a small spoon, fill each cookie (center of each ball) with ½ teaspoon of homemade cranberry sauce or cranberry jam.
Left: Cookies after they've baked Right: Cookies with the cranberry sauce added.

Serve and enjoy:

  • Once the cookies have cooled completely, transfer them to a container or serving dish and enjoy!
Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies on a white plate.

Expert Tips

  • You can use a piping bag or a zip-top bag with the corner cut to easily fill the middle of the cookies with cranberry sauce or jam.
  • The cookies are fragile when they’re hot, so let them cool completely before you transfer them.
  • These cookies don’t spread much when they bake, so you can place them pretty close together and fit more on your baking sheet.
  • This recipe is a great way to use leftover cranberry sauce from the holidays, but you can also find cranberry jam at your local grocery store.

What To Serve with Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies

  • A warm drink: My favorite way to enjoy cranberry thumbprint cookies is with a comforting cup of tea, coffee, or hot cocoa to go with it.
  • A cozy meal: These cookies are the perfect dessert to enjoy with a cozy winter meal, like sweet potato chili or chicken noodle soup.
  • A sweet gift: An assortment of holiday cookies makes a thoughtful and affordable homemade gift! Pair cranberry thumbprint cookies with any of these 12 healthy gluten-free cookies and package them up in a festive tin.
Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies on a baking sheet.

Recipe Variations

  • Fruit filling: Substitute the homemade cranberry sauce filling for your favorite flavor of jam, jelly, or fruit preserves such as strawberry or raspberry or even melted white chocolate.
  • Chocolate: If you prefer chocolate desserts to fruity ones, these cookies would also taste amazing with any variety of chocolate or my easy homemade sugar-free Nutella spread.
  • Extract flavors: This recipe uses vanilla extract, but you can use other types like almond or lemon extract to switch up the flavor. You can also use some orange zest on top if them or even a dusting of powdered sugar.
  • Sugar: You can also use brown sugar, but if you do, your cookies will have a slightly darker color.
closeup view of cranberry thumbprint cookies on a white plate

Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies

3.25 from 12 votes
Author: Olivia Ribas
Servings30 people
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Elevate your holiday baking with festive Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies. Made with just four simple ingredients, these cookies are vegan, gluten-free, and absolutely irresistible!

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Ingredients 
 

Instructions 

  • Pre-heat the oven to 350˚F. Line one large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  • In the bowl of a standard electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until it becomes fluffy. Then add the vanilla extract and whisk until well combined.
  • Add ½ cup of almond flour at a time. Notice that the dough will be a little crumby, but it will stick when pressed together.
  • After adding all the almond flour and everything is well combined, scoop about 1 tablespoon of the dough and shape it into balls. Make an indentation with your thumb into each ball. The dough will probably crack a little when you press your thumb into it. You can re-seal some cracks by smoothing it out with your fingers. But know that it’s totally fine to have a few cracks.
  • Bake for about 12-14 minutes or until they are golden brown. The cookies will be very fragile when you remove from the oven. So, allow them to cool down for about 10 minutes before handling them.
  • Fill each cookie with a 1/2 teaspoon of homemade cranberry sauce or cranberry jam. Enjoy!

Notes

  • The cookie dough was adapted from the blog Wholesome Yum.
  • To easily fill the middle of the cookies with cranberry sauce or jam, you can use a piping bag or a zip-top bag with the corner cut.
  • As the cookies will be soft and crumbly right out of the oven, let them fully cool before transferring them.
  • These cookies do not spread a lot in the oven, so feel free to fit more on the baking sheet.
  • You can use leftover cranberry sauce from the holidays, or a jar of cranberry jam from the grocery store.
  • To store: Store the cookies for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
  • To freeze: After baking, flash freeze the cookies before transferring them to a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/30, Calories: 76kcal, Carbohydrates: 5g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 7g, Sodium: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Olivia Ribas

Welcome

Hi, I'm Olivia


Happy to have you here! I’ve been creating and sharing tasty, easy-to-make recipes on Primavera Kitchen for over 10 years now! I’m all about simple, delicious recipes made with fresh, seasonal, and wholesome ingredients that your whole family will love.

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3.25 from 12 votes (9 ratings without comment)

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16 Comments

  1. Allie says:

    When do you add the butter? There’s no mention of it in the instructions.

  2. Allie says:

    You mention eggs in the instructions but not in the list of ingredients. Did you mean butter when you said eggs?

    1. Olivia Ribas says:

      Yes, I meant butter instead of egg. Sorry about that. I just adjusted the recipe to clear further confusion. Thanks for pointing it out!

  3. val says:

    Eggs missing from recipe, how many to use?

    1. Olivia Ribas says:

      There isn’t eggs in this recipe. I meant butter instead of egg. Sorry about that. I just adjusted the recipe to clear further confusion. Thanks for pointing it out!

  4. Paula Wisor says:

    These are great! But I found them really crumbly, so I added an egg WITH the butter already mentioned. Stayed together really well and came out delicious!

    1. Olivia Ribas says:

      That’s great. Thanks for the feedback and let me know about the egg. Next time I’ll add an egg too 😉

    2. Jane says:

      Can these be made with gf flour?

      1. Olivia Ribas says:

        Yes it can.

  5. Nicole says:

    Can you substitute coconut flour for the almond flour?

    1. Olivia Ribas says:

      I believe not. Sorry.

  6. Maria vilma Ribas says:

    Amo 

  7. Judy Johnson says:

    Thank you for creating this really great cookie recipe! Gluten free is especially appreciated. 🤗

    1. Olivia Ribas says:

      You’re very welcome!

  8. Mary Anne De Silva says:

    Mine flattened out…
    I added the egg as one user suggested. But my cookie flattened and spread

    1. Olivia Ribas says:

      Thanks for giving the recipe a try! To troubleshoot the issue, did you use the same ingredients and measurements as mentioned on the recipe card? Sometimes, variations in ingredient amounts or types can affect how cookies hold their shape. Additionally, if the butter was too soft, it could cause the cookies to spread more than desired. Let me know if I can assist further to help you achieve the perfect cookies next time!