These raspberry ribbon cookies are one of my husband’s favorite Christmas cookies. The rich, buttery cookies are filled with seedless raspberry jam, but you can substitute your favorite flavor if you prefer.

One note about substitutions for the filling. It works best if you use a smooth puree, so I’d opt for a jelly, seedless jam or lemon curd.

If you have your heart set on using a chunky jam or preserve, puree it with stick blender before using.

Note that low sugar seedless jam will want to spread more during baking, but give more raspberry flavor. Full sugar jams tend to be firmer and sweeter.

How to Make Raspberry Ribbon Cookies

The deep red of raspberry jam filling in these raspberry ribbon cookies naturally brightens up any cookie tray.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (homemade extract is great if you have it)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350℉ degrees.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Blend in egg and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add dry ingredients slowly into creamed mixture, until well blended. Divide dough into four equal portions and chill for 30 minutes.

Baking, Filling, and Icing

Shape each hunk of dough into a 10 inch long by 2 1/2 inch wide log. Place 2 inches apart on well greased or lined with parchment paper.

I prefer using air bake baking sheets to avoid excess browning. I spread my dough evenly across a 14 inch wide pan.

Make a 1/2 in depression down the center of each log. Bake for 10 minutes, or until soft set. (Air bake pans may take a bit longer.)

While cookies are baking, place the jam into a plastic zipper bag with about 1/8″ cut off one corner. You can also use a pastry bag with a #4 or #5 round tip. This makes it much easier to put the “ribbon” in the raspberry ribbon cookies.

Remove pan from oven, deepen the depression in each log, if needed. (The dough rises during baking.) You can use a chopstick or wooden spoon handle for this.

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Using the baggie or pastry bag, squirt the jam into the depression. If you have all four logs baking at once, it’s easier to divide the jam evenly.

Return pan to oven and bake 10-15 minutes longer or until lightly browned. Cool for two minutes. Remove to a cutting board.

(If you’ve used parchment paper, just slide the paper onto the board. It’ll make cleanup much easier.) Cut into 3/4 in slices.

In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle sugar glaze over warm cookies. Cool completely on wire racks. Yields about five dozen cookies.

Storing Your Raspberry Ribbon Cookies

Store your raspberry ribbon cookies in a sealed container at room temperature. They’ll keep in good condition for about a week with cool room temps.

If you need to stack the cookies, use a layer of wax paper between layers. This will help to keep the cookies from sticking together.

Freeze the cookies for longer storage. They’re best if used within a month or so, even with freezing.