Name: Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Jam Filling
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 36 cookies

Elizabeth Poett is passionate about preserving and maintaining her family’s ranch while growing healthy, fresh foods to share with loved ones.


Elizabeth Poett

During the holidays, I love to make these cookies to give to neighbors. They are buttery and rich with just the right amount of vanilla. Rolling the dough in sugar makes them sparkly and festive, and you can also vary the type of jam you use. Sometimes I will make a batch and fill a few with blueberry jam, a few with raspberry jam, and a few with apricot jam. The color variation is beautiful and the different fruit flavors make it hard to just have one cookie!

Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Jam Filling

Meet The Creator

"An easy way to gather vegetables for this recipe is to keep a baggie in the freezer and whenever you have leftover vegetables you can just toss them in. That way, as soon as you cook a recipe that leaves you with chicken bones, you have what you need to make the stock—you can just put it all in a large pot on the stove and let it simmer. I always try to make as much of this stock as possible so that I can freeze at least half the batch. There is satisfaction in using every last bit of food you can, and knowing that nothing is going to waste." – Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Homemade Chicken Stock

As much as I enjoy doing my own thing in the kitchen, I love when the kids are happy to jump in and help me make a meal. In this episode, I have a couple of

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Episode 4

This cake is light and airy and fresh! It’s lemony but not overwhelmingly so. I love buttercream frosting and I love lemon curd, and so I decided to try combining them. The result was a frosting that is a dreamy blend of these two favorites: a fresh lemon flavor and a smooth, buttery frosting all in one. If you don't have time to make the lemon curd, it can be store-bought, but it’s fun to make. If you make it you’ll end up with a little bit of extra curd to enjoy on toast. My dad loves everything lemon so I make this cake for him on his birthday every year.

Elizabeth Poett's Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream Frosting

Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream Frosting

This is a simple, nourishing soup that’s full of flavor and easy to make. Blending half of the garbanzos (a.k.a. chickpeas) makes for just the right combination of flavorful broth and satisfying texture — not too thick, not too thin. The tomato makes the soup bright, and the basil adds a summery fragrance and flavor, and you can never have too much Parmesan cheese! If you don’t have time to cook the beans, you can make it with canned beans instead. You can also trade out the garbanzo beans for another type of bean.

Elizabeth Poett's Rustic Garbanzo Bean Soup with Parmesan and Homemade Chili Oil

Rustic Garbanzo Bean Soup with Parmesan and Homemade Chili Oil

When it comes to choosing a rug, you have a lot of options. Something that can help to point you in the right direction is knowing the design style or styles

Rug Style Guide

My mother and I love making these empanadas together! We make a lot of different kinds of empanadas, but this sweet dessert is the perfect way to celebrate the apple season. The pastry is crunchy and flaky, the cinnamon sugar adds wonderful texture, and the frying process makes them absolutely decadent. People think they are a fancy food, but they are easy to make ahead, freeze, and then fry the day of a party. I like to serve them with small jars full of the bourbon whipped cream for dipping.

Elizabeth Poett's Apple Empanadas with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Apple Empanadas with Bourbon Whipped Cream

I had a version of this citrus guacamole at a restaurant that is no longer open, and it was so delicious that I created my own version. The pop of citrus in your mouth is unexpected and pairs beautifully with the rich butteriness of avocados. The flavors keep building as you eat it. You can use oranges, grapefruits, or whatever your favorite citrus fruit is! I’m sure you’ll love this recipe so much it will become your go-to guac recipe.

Citrus Guacamole

I am always super-excited when fresh cherries show up at the markets! These little stone fruits burst with flavor and are only here for a short time, so I love to enjoy them as much as possible. Scones are an easy, quick way to make something special for breakfast, and I think they are best with fresh fruit in them.

Elizabeth Poett's Cherry-Almond Scones Drizzled with White Chocolate

Cherry-Almond Scones Drizzled with White Chocolate

A few years ago, I saw these beautiful trees while on a trip to Pennsylvania and fell in love with them. I learned they were called a saucer magnolia tree. I

How to Make a Saucer Magnolia Flower

We serve this burger at Magnolia Table, and I have to confess that it’s one of my favorite things on the menu. My boys love burgers of just about any kind, so I could probably get away with serving something a little plainer to them (and, of course, you can leave any part of this out if you have picky eaters—or let everyone pick their own toppings). I just love how a grilled buttered brioche bun holds a savory burger, sweet drip jam, creamy melted cheese, and peppery fresh arugula, so that every single bite is an amazing combination of flavors and textures.

Gaines Brother Burgers with Drip Jam

These are, hands down, my kids’ favorite breakfast. Who am I kidding? They’re my favorite, too, especially when served alongside eggs—I can’t get enough of that combination of sweet and salty. These are definitely a labor of love, but honestly I think we all enjoy preparing them almost as much as we like to eat them. I’m in my happy place anytime I get to work with dough. Mixing the ingredients together into a cohesive whole, draping a towel over the bowl and letting the dough rise, punching it down, and then rolling, filling, and shaping it—the ritual of every step brings me pure joy. Whenever I bust out the ingredients for these squares, the kids know it’s a good day. I make these a lot during school holidays when there’s time in the morning for them to help. Duke and Emmie stand at attention with the measured ingredients waiting for the sign from me that they can dump them into the bowl, and then the older two help me roll out the dough and compose each layer. Drake loves that he’s finally allowed to use a big knife to cut the squares before they’re baked, and then he and Ella apply the egg wash to the tops of them. The kids understand that the bit of extra effort required for these squares makes them something really special.



I think it probably helps that these squares are the best iteration of a cinnamon roll that any of us has ever tasted. It can be hard to get a good balance with cinnamon rolls—they either have too much bread or too much cinnamon. The way I make these, rolling and folding them repeatedly so that the filling is between several thin layers of dough, results in a square that has a perfect amount of both bread and cinnamon, so every bite is balanced.

Cinnamon Squares

In busy seasons, one thing that I always look forward to is a slow Sunday at home with my family. For us, that can look like spending some time in the garden,

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 3, Episode 1

Coming into fresh truffles is a special moment. The flavor and aroma are woodsy and strong and make an incredible addition to a variety of dishes. One of the best ways to extend the enjoyment of a truffle is to incorporate it into butter that can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for a wide variety of future applications. Check out my Truffle Butter Roasted Chicken recipe, swirl it into your favorite pasta for a weeknight meal, or melt over steak, still hot from the grill. YUM!

Truffle Butter

A bone-in ribeye is my favorite cut of steak, and I love grilling for special occasions. It is well marbled, flavorful, and the ultimate classic cut. Chimichurri sauce is one of those condiments that you can slather onto almost anything and pairs perfectly with a steak. I make a big batch and use it throughout the whole week. There is something about the fresh herbs and vinegar that makes this a bright, vibrant, highly flavored sauce.

Elizabeth Poett's Ribeye Steak with Chimichurri

Ribeye Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

“There are some meals you know are special because of the time they require or the long list of ingredients they call for. Other times, I find joy in recipes that can be as creative or straightforward as I want. The base of this recipe offers that flexibility. Flatbread is delicious with a simple, traditional hummus or dip, but I also love piling on veggies from the garden, or as this recipe calls for, a little bit of prosciutto and arugula.” — Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Joanna Gaines' Balsamic-Glazed Prosciutto Flatbread

Balsamic-Glazed Prosciutto Flatbread

You know love when you experience it. Intentional conversation over coffee. A meal dropped off at the door. The celebration of a life, and life together. In

Stories With Love

I love a one-pot meal that also feels extra-special, and paella makes that kind of meal. This Spanish dish of rice, vegetables and meat or seafood packs flavor and simplicity into one skillet. A large pan of paella is festive, colorful and serves a crowd — it’s just right for a celebratory dinner with friends and family. Making the vegetable-and-aromatic sofrito is a key step in cooking paella and acts as the dish’s flavor base. I like a combination of mussels, shrimp and lobster tails in the seafood version of the dish, but you can easily tailor it to your favorite types of seafood.

Elizabeth Poett's Seafood and Asparagus Paella

Seafood and Asparagus Paella

Roasted mushrooms are one of my favorite dishes to make when hosting friends for dinner because it's so easy to throw them on a sheet pan and let the oven do the work. You can really build on the richness of the mushrooms by pairing it with a simple vinaigrette. As with the Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, this was inspired by a dish in The Fresh Honey Cookbook by one of my dear late friends, Laurey Masterton. Laurey was wildly passionate about a lot of things, and one of those was bees and honey. It was an honor to be able to recreate some of Laurey's dishes for a dinner on From the Source, incorporating a few of my own touches along the way.

Katie Button's Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

Living in Texas means there are short windows of truly pleasant weather when you can linger outside and lose all sense of time. I like to seize those moments

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 6, Episode 5

Twenty years ago this May, I married the love of my life. Twenty years. It doesn’t even make sense. Just yesterday, I was on one knee in a jewelry store outside Archer City, Texas, asking Jo to marry me.

A graphic that says "Magnolia Journal | A Note from Chip on Savor | By Chip Gaines."

Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Jam Filling

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