These easy Raspberry Ribbon Cookies are a vanilla cookie filled with a ribbon of raspberry jam and glazed with an easy vanilla icing. They taste like a cookie version of a raspberry Danish!
Day 8 of the annual 12 Days of Christmas Cookies 2022!
Raspberry Ribbon Cookies are easy, beautiful cookies. The dough is flavored with a lot of vanilla extract and baked with a ribbon of raspberry jam for a soft center and crunchy exterior. This is an easy addition to a Holiday cookie tray!
Gift these cookies with Pecan Snowball Cookies, Gingerbread Boys, Grandma’s Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies and Vanilla Spritz Cookies for the perfect balance of flavors and textures! You could also serve them with coffee or tea as a cute twist on traditional Raspberry Danish!
Table of Contents
What are Raspberry Ribbon Cookies?
Raspberry Ribbon Cookies are vanilla cookies with a ribbon of raspberry jam down the center. After baking, the ropes are cut on the diagonal to create individual ribbon cookies. Ice it with a vanilla glaze, which will make the whole cookie taste like a raspberry Danish pastry!
Ingredients
- Butter: I use unsalted butter for baking, because you want to control the amount of salt you are adding. Every brand is different and it makes adjusting the recipe a challenge.
- Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar is obviously in these raspberry ribbon cookies for sweetness, but if you add too much in proportion to the butter and flour, the cookies will spread. The sugar also shortens the gluten strands in the flour creating that tender, crunchy texture.
- Whole Egg: The eggs are here to add fat, moisture and leavening. The fat from the yolk adds richness and helps keep the cookies chewy. Beating in the eggs just enough will add a little or a lot of leavening depending on the desired texture. Eggs also emulsify the batter and keep everything texturally perfect.
- Whole Milk: There is just the right amount of whole milk to pull the dough together but not so much to make them tough. The addition of a liquid means we have to be extra careful not to overmix the dough and activate the gluten in the flour.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla Extract adds a beautiful flavor itself but it also boosts the flavor of other ingredients around it.
- Almond Extract: Almond extract is here for flavoring. I love this almond extract brand in particular.
- All-purpose flour: Be sure to measure your all-purpose flour by fluffing up the flour in the bag then spooning it into a measuring cup. Level it off with a knife. Be careful not to tap or compress the flour.
- Seedless Raspberry Jam: I prefer to bake these raspberry ribbon cookies with seedless raspberry jam but seeded also works. For baking be sure to buy a thicker jam that will not spread too much. Bonne Maman and Smuckers seedless raspberry jam work nicely here.
Variations on Raspberry Ribbon Cookies
- Flavor: Most danish ribbon recipes call for seedless raspberry jam but these would be delicious with any flavor of jam! You could even make each cookie log different, so you end up with a variety of colors!
- Citrus: Easily flavor the dough with orange or lemon zest by combining the sugar with about a tablespoon of zest. The longer the zest sits with the sugar before mixing, the more intense the flavor will be. Use orange or lemon juice in place of the milk in the glaze for even more flavor atop your raspberry ribbon cookies!
- Thumbprints: Rather than rolling the dough into ropes, you could roll it into balls and press and dent in the center of each with your finger. Bake as directed but fill the center of each cookie with jam. My Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies are a great model of what those would look like!
Frequently Asked Questions
Store these crunchy cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Raspberry Ribbon Cookies will keep up to 2 weeks at room temperature. They are still edible beyond that but they will begin to taste a bit stale.
You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 2 months in an airtight container or freeze the dough to make more cookies later.
You can make the cookie dough up to 2 weeks in advance and store refrigerated or freeze for up to 2 months.
You can make as large a batch of raspberry ribbon cookies as you would like. You are only limited by the capacity of your stand mixer.
You can ship these Danish ribbon cookies between layers of waxed paper or parchment. Be sure to use tissue paper to fill in any gaps to keep them from hitting the sides of the tin.
This dough does not need to be chilled before baking because you want a little bit of spreading. If you want smaller, less crunchy cookies, chill the dough in logs before baking.
Chef Lindsey's Recipe Tips
You can spoon the jam into the center of the cookies or you could use a piping bag to evenly and easily apply the jam. It will also be much faster than using a spoon.
Recipe
Raspberry Ribbon Cookies
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 1 cup Butter (room temperature)
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 2 tablespoons Milk
- 2 tablespoons Vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon Almond Extract
- 2 ⅔ cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Seedless Raspberry Jam
For the Glaze:
- ½ cup Confectioner’s Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour, waiting until one addition is almost incorporated before adding the next.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. This can also be refrigerated several days before proceeding.
Bake the Ribbon Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 375°F non-convection.
- Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll each into a rope that is about 12 inches long and ¾ inch wide. Evenly space 3 pieces on each piece of parchment.
- Make a ¼ inch groove down the center of each rope with the handle of a wooden spoon or a dowel. Transfer to baking sheets. This step can be done on the baking sheet if they are flat. All my baking sheets are rimmed, so I needed to press the groove in the center before placing the baking sheet.
- Bake 12 minutes and then spoon or pipe jam down the center of each rope. If the dough puffed while baking, press it down gently to make space for the jam. Bake about 5-8 minutes longer or until the strips are a light golden brown.
- Cool about 15 minutes on the baking sheets. Then remove to a cutting board and slice on a diagonal about 1 inches apart. You can glaze before or after cutting.
Prepare the Glaze:
- In a small bowl whisk together sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cookies. This can be done before or after cutting the cookies. Glazing after cutting will make a cleaner cookie.
- Let cool completely before storing.
- Store in an airtight container between pieces of wax or parchment paper.
Video Instructions
Before You Go!
Check out our other delicious, chef-developed recipes for Cookies!
Is 2 tablespoons of vanilla correct or should it be teaspoons? Also should the recipe have any salt added? Thank you
Hi Susan! It's 2 tablespoons in the dough, 1 teaspoon in the glaze. The recipe as written does not have salt added. Happy baking!