Best Glazed Ribbon Cookies

Glazed ribbon cookies use a clever shortcut technique borrowed from Scandinavian and Italian holiday baking: instead of cutting individual cookies, you roll the buttery shortbread dough into long ropes, press a groove down the center, fill with raspberry jam, bake, glaze, and slice diagonally into 48 finished cookies. Twenty minutes of prep instead of an hour of cookie-cutter work.

The seedless jam is what gives the cookies their clean, glossy filling. Seeded jam crystallizes the seeds during baking and gives a gritty texture that ruins the otherwise smooth bite. The acid in the jam also helps the filling set firm enough to slice cleanly without smearing.

Glazing the cookies while still warm is the technique most people miss. The glaze melts slightly into the surface of the warm shortbread, soaking in just enough to set as a thin, opaque coating rather than sitting on top as a thick layer that flakes off.

Pro Tips

• Form even, uniform ropes about ¾ inch in diameter. Uneven ropes bake at different rates and slice into uneven cookies
• Press the groove with the side of your little finger or the back of a wooden spoon handle
• Don’t overfill the grooves with jam. The jam expands during baking and overflows messy ropes
• Slice the warm cookies on a 45-degree diagonal for the prettiest ribbon shape

Variations

• Substitute apricot, strawberry, or orange marmalade for the raspberry jam
• Stir ½ teaspoon almond extract into the dough for a nuttier shortbread base
• Sprinkle finely chopped pistachios or sliced almonds over the glaze before it sets