Frangipane Jam Drops

My good old-fashioned Jam Drops are made with added frangipane (an almond-rich pastry filling) making them incredibly more-ish and almost cake-like in texture. They are delicious butter cookies filled with jam and baked until golden. Super easy and fun to bake, with only 7 ingredients and ready in just under 30 minutes! Perfect with your afternoon cuppa 🙂

Jump to:

• 🧡 Why make these Jam Drops?
• 🤔 What is Frangipane?
• 🍓 Ingredients
• 🥣 Recipe Instructions
• 🕰️ Storage
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Recipe FAQs
• 💛 More Cookie Recipes You'll Love
• Recipe

🧡 Why make these Jam Drops?

These biscuits are known by many names. Depending on where you are in the world, they would be known to you as "jam drops" or "jam drop biscuits" or "jam cookies" or "thumbprint cookies". Fret not my fellow foodies. They are all the same. A vanilla-infused white butter cookie filled with jam and baked until golden.

If you are after these delightfully famous cookies, make my more traditional Jam Drop Biscuits, but if you love a delicious dense biscuit with an almost cake-like texture, try my Frangipane Jam Drops.

1. They have a generous amount of almond meal which not only adds more protein to the biscuits but makes them infinitely more delicious and textural.
2. They are super easy. One-bowl, mix-and-bake recipe!
3. Fun to make!
4. Ready in under 30 minutes.
5. They stay fresh for more than a week.

🤔 What is Frangipane?

Frangipane is a pastry filling made predominantly of almond meal along with butter, eggs, and flour. The ratio of almond meal to flour is higher creating a creamy, textural paste. It is often used to spread on the base of a tart or galette before baking and forms the base of a friand or a frangipane cake. It is also a loose term to reference any baked treat that uses a lot of almond meal along with eggs or egg whites.

🍓 Ingredients

This Jam Drop recipe uses very basic, everyday pantry ingredients.

1. Flour - Use plain flour for this recipe. You can replace it with spelt flour for added texture and nutrients. Want to make your Jam Drops gluten-free? Substitute plain flour with sorghum or chest flour.
2. Egg - Use a standard-sized egg weighing approximately 60g. Make this recipe egg-free by replacing the egg with a flax egg. See my notes.
3. Sugar - White caster sugar is perfect for this recipe. It will yield a very light beige-coloured, baked jam drop. I use raw caster sugar which has a slight golden colour. This not only adds a lovely light golden colour to the baked jam drop but also gives it a slight caramel flavour.
4. Butter - You can use either salted or unsalted butter. Make sure it is softened and at room temperature.
5. Flavour - Besides vanilla extract, these jam drops are the best with strawberry jam. I have used strawberry jam for these cookies. You can use any jam/conserve. Berries and cherries are preferred over other fruit as their tartness offsets the sweetness of these gorgeous cookies. Using a darker shade of jam gives a striking contrast to your beige, buttery cookies.

🥣 Recipe Instructions

1. Whisk wet ingredients together - Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat for another minute until creamy and thoroughly combined.

2. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients - Add flour and almond meal. Mix well using a wooden or silicone spoon until the wet and dry ingredients are thoroughly combined to form a soft, textural paste.

3. Roll cookies and place on a baking sheet - Take approximately 2 tablespoons of cookie dough in the palm of your hands and roll them into a ball. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper/silicone. Repeat with the remaining dough. Make sure the cookie balls are placed at least 5 cm apart.

4. Create the indents for the jam drops - Using your thumb, gently press down on the top of each cookie to create a soft indent.

5. Topping cookies with jam and working with stodgy jam - Fill the indent on each cookie with a quarter-half teaspoon of strawberry jam. If your jam is too stodgy, place a few tablespoons in a microwaveable bowl and add a teaspoon of water. Mix well and microwave for 6-8 seconds to loosen the jam before proceeding with filling the indents. Bake as per the recipe instructions.

🕰️ Storage

After baking, these jam drops are gloriously crispy around the edges. This softens to an addictive soft chewiness after you have stored them in a glass-lidded jar for a day or two. They keep well in a cool corner of the kitchen in an air-tight container for up to a week. They last well in the fridge for up to two weeks.

I absolutely love them with my afternoon cup of coffee. The jam shining like rubies on these delightful little cookies is hard to resist. I love licking it first before letting the cookie crumble in my mouth.

👩🏻‍🍳 Recipe FAQs

💛 More Cookie Recipes You'll Love

Recipe

Originally published in Feb 2009. Updated in Feb 2022 with a slight change to the recipe, including gram measurements and new photos.