Soft, honey-sweetened “sugar” cookies meet tangy-sweet strawberry jam. These cookies come together in just about 15 minutes, plus they’re pretty dang healthy to boot! This recipe has become my go-to on nights when I really want a freshly-baked sweet treat that comes together in a snap.

These cookies are gluten free, grain free, refined sugar free and dairy free — and they’re absolutely delicious. Like “wow this is healthy?” delicious. Damn it these cookies taste like friggin pillowy, jam-filled honey-clouds. I don’t know if it gets any better than that!

So here’s the deal: most of the gluten free thumbprint cookie recipes I’ve found whilst searching the internet are either loaded down with sugar, made with a million flours or contain butter. And they also mostly look very crumbly and crackly — obviously they will either fall apart in your hands or leave a gritty texture on your teeth. I can’t stand a dry, powdery cookie. IT JUST DRIVES ME NUTS. #ihavethisthingwithtextures

So my goal with my thumbprint recipe was to create a buttery-soft little cookie pouf, the kind I wish I could take a nap in. Something more kin to a soft sugar cookie. But healthier. Cue the use of honey as a sweetener and a combo of almond flour and tapioca flour as the base. And of course these cookies needed to be filled with a yummy refined sugar free jam — St. Dalfour jam is my absolute favorite as it’s cane sugar free and they have lots of unusual fruit options like black raspberry, fig and black currant. I think they taste as good or better than homemade. Not sponsored, I just love them and I want more people to know about them! I usually buy it at Whole Foods.

I usually fill these cookies with strawberry jam or black raspberry (my absolute favorite), but seriously just do what speaks to your soul!

A note for vegan readers: I haven’t tested a vegan option of these yet but I hypothesize that a chia egg would work just fine instead of a regular egg. If you would like to sub out honey I believe agave will work — maple syrup might work although the viscosity might be too thin.

xo — Renee

p.s. The flowers on the cookies are feverfew.

Honey-Sweetened Gluten Free Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Author: Renee Byrd - Adapted from: The Kitchen McCabe - Active prep time: 5 mins - Inactive prep time: 0 mins - Total bake time: 8-10 mins per cookie sheet Makes: 1 1/2 dozen, ~ 18 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups blanched almond flour

• 3/4 cup tapioca flour

• ¼ teaspoon salt, plus more for topping

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ⅓ cup honey

• 1 tablespoon cashew butter

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• 1 egg

• Strawberry jam, for filling cookies

Method

1. In a large bowl combine almond flour, tapioca flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate small bowl, combine vanilla, honey, cashew butter, coconut oil and egg. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to combine.

2. Scoop out rounded tablespoons of dough and roll them into balls. On a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, space out all of your cookies with about an inch of room between them. These cookies don’t spread much — I’ve been able to cook all of the cookies on one large baking sheet just fine. If you can’t fit all of your cookies on your baking sheet, you’ll need to bake them in two batches.

3. Using your thumb, create indentations in the tops of the cookies. Fill each indentation with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of jam — don’t add too much as the jam will spill over the sides as the cookies rise during baking. Bake for 8-10 min at 350 F until the bottoms are deeply golden and the tops are lightly golden. Bake for a shorter time if you want softer cookies, longer if you want firmer cookies. They will seem very soft at 8-10 mins right out of the oven but they firm up as they cool — so make sure not to overbake.

4. Cool for 5-10 mins before eating. Add more jam to the tops of the cookies as needed (I like a lot of jam on top, so I always add more). Enjoy!