Scottish Tea Cookies with Apple Butter
on Oct 24, 2014, Updated Jul 01, 2025
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These Apple Butter Thumbprint Cookies are the perfect cookie for fall. Made with savory flavors and a hot oven, you can be dunking these in a hot cup of tea in just 30 minutes!
✅ Scottish Tea Cookies with Apple Butter🍎
🕒 Ready in: About 30 minutes (plus chill time)
🍪 Yields: About 3 dozen cookies
👨🍳 Skill Level: Beginner-friendly
📦 Equipment: Mixing bowls, cookie sheet, zip-top bag (for piping)
🍂 These soft, buttery cookies are filled with a dollop of rich apple butter for the perfect fall treat—like thumbprint cookies with an old-world twist.
🧈 Inspired by the Mennonite Community Cookbook and classic Scottish tea biscuits, this cozy recipe uses powdered sugar for a smooth, tender texture.
🍏 Apple butter takes center stage here—perfectly sweet, slightly spiced, and made to pair with a hot cup of tea.
🧊 Dough chills for an hour, then gets shaped into 1-inch balls, pressed flat, and filled with apple butter before baking until golden.
💡 Pro Tip: Use a zip-top bag to pipe the apple butter neatly into the center wells. Serve warm or cooled with your favorite fall beverage.
The perfect fall cookie, these cookies made with apple butter fit right in with our pecan pie cookies, my mom’s old fashioned molasses cookies, and these easy pecan sandies cookies.
A month or so back, a kind lady from Musselman’s emailed me and offered to send me a bottle of Musselman’s Apple Butter so that I could come up with a tasty new use for it.
I eagerly agreed to do my best and as a result of my own cravings and a little bit of creativity, these Scottish Tea Cookies with Apple Butter were born
I’m only beginning to appreciate apple butter. I grew up enjoying it although it seems it was only around after trips to visit family in Ontario, Canada which was a short two hour drive or so from my childhood home in the foothills of New York state’s Adirondack mountains.
To this day, I haven’t figured out why there seemed to be no local source of apple butter in those parts. As time goes on though I’m beginning so surmise it was a great excuse of my mom and dad to pay visits to their dear cousins who lived north of the border.
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A few months back, we picked up some apple butter from a local farmer’s market and I put together this apple butter meatloaf which turned out really, really tasty. From that experience, I learned that apple butter is compatible with just about anything you can think of. Apple butter goes well with bread, meat, as a side, and as I found out with this recipe – cookies.
Aside from the jar of Mussleman’s apple butter that was sent to me, the Mennonite Community Cookbook, a standard kitchen “Bible” in our family, provided me with some further inspiration via its Scottish Tea Cookie recipe which I modified for these cookies.
As a sugar base, powdered sugar is used in these in lieu of the granulated form. This helps construct a soft yet firm cookie, almost biscuit-like in the old English sense.
A dollop of apple butter is seated in a center well and the rest is… dreamy. Addictive. Delicious. And fall. Pick up some apple butter and make these. They are simple and they will make you smile and crave just one more. Happy fall. -Dan
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Scottish Tea Cookies with Apple Butter
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Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup apple butter
Instructions
- Combine salt, sugar, shortening and butter.
- Add flour a bit at a time, working in like a pastry to a crumbly consistency.
- In separate bowl, beat eggs and and vanilla.
- Add egg mixture to flour mixture and mix till smooth.
- Chill dough in fridge for at least one hour.
- Shape chilled dough into balls 1 inch in diameter.
- Place dough balls on greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart and flatten with palm of hand.
- Use thumb to create well in center of each cookie.
- Place a few tablespoons of apple butter in small zip-lock bag.
- Snip corner of bag with scissors to create small opening.
- Squeeze apple butter into each well, filling slightly above level of dough.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until light brown in color.
Notes
-
🧊 Chill the Dough for Better Shape
Letting the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour helps the cookies hold their form and prevents excessive spreading during baking. This step also improves the texture for a tender, biscuit-like crumb. -
🥄 Use a Zip-Top Bag for Neat Filling
For cleaner and more precise results, spoon the apple butter into a small zip-top bag and snip a corner. Pipe it into the thumbprint wells for a professional finish without the mess. -
🔥 Bake Until Just Lightly Golden
Keep an eye on the bottoms and edges of the cookies. They should be lightly browned. Overbaking can dry them out and take away from that soft, buttery bite that makes these cookies so special.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I tried this recipe making it exactly as stated it was so dry. I actually threw them out. I feel like it’s supposed to be rolled in something although I just read the recipe again and I don’t see that you’re saying roll the dough but why does it look like it has sugar on it as if it’s been rolled really really want to make these But I have to understand what I did wrong
Hi there,
Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try and for sharing your feedback—I truly appreciate it! You’re right about the look of the cookies—some photos may make it seem like they’re rolled in sugar, but in the actual recipe, we don’t include a sugar roll. The powdered sugar in the dough itself gives them that delicate, lightly sweet appearance once baked.
That said, if you found them dry, I wonder if a couple of adjustments could help. You might try reducing the flour slightly or making sure the dough is thoroughly chilled but not over-mixed, which can make them tough. And if you like a sweeter finish (and a prettier presentation!), you could roll the dough balls lightly in granulated sugar before baking. It would give a touch more sweetness and a subtle sparkle.
I’d love for you to give these another shot—I think with a couple of tweaks, you’ll get that perfect texture you’re after. And hey, experimenting is part of the fun in baking, right? 😊
Thanks again for sharing your experience, and happy baking!
—Dan
Hi there!
Thank you for trying the recipe and for your kind words—I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 😊 I totally hear you on the seasoning; those pinches and dashes can be sneaky, right? I’m guilty of the same thing when I “eyeball it” sometimes. Your tip about pairing it with rice or mashed taters is spot on—so comforting and satisfying!
Thanks again for sharing your feedback, and happy air frying!
—Dan
My husband’s family descent is Scottish and I’m always looking for recipes to try. Being Southern, I love apple butter. Mixing these two together – glorious. We absolutely LOVED these cookies!
So happy you enjoyed these, April! Thanks for the great feedback!
Oh my gosh, these cookies look too delicious. Never even heard of apple butter until coming across this post. Will definitely need to check that out. Thanks!
Peter, I hope you try the cookies AND some apple butter! Thanks for the great comments.
These cookies are so pretty. I love that you used apple butter, rather than jelly. You are being featured this week, at Simple Supper Tuesday. I hope you can join us again, starting at 8pm, on Monday night!
I love it on a nice warm buttery biscuit, or….in a spoon straight to the mouth!!
I really love the Apple Butter Meatloaf recipe!
Thank You for the chance
I like it on toast, with butter.
I love it on toast
These cookies look great, I love apple butter. I have pinned this to try, they look like they’d be a perfect fall cookie! 🙂