These salted caramel thumbprint cookies were my favorite cookie find this past holiday season. My friend Elisa made them for her holiday cookie plates (among many other amazing treats) and I immediately fell in love. I don’t know if it was the salt or the fact that the cookies themselves are shortbread, but I got sucked in and stole them right out from under my family when they weren’t looking.
Elisa originally found the recipe on the lovely food blog A Cozy Kitchen. I decided to give the recipe a go. I even made the caramel from scratch, which I highly recommend. I promise it was easy and it didn’t take much time at all. I just followed Adrianna’s instructions, to great success. Elisa had used store-bought caramel to save some time. Her cookies were still wonderful, but I must admit I preferred the homemade caramel – the texture was softer and easier to chew.
I am retyping the recipe here so I can throw in a few notes from what I learned. Enjoy!
- Cookies:
- 1½ stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup of granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
- 1¾ cup of all-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- Caramel:
- ½ cup of granulated sugar
- 2 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla (if you have a stand mixer, use paddle attachment). In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Dump on a floured board and roll together into a flat square. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take out the fridge and cut into 1¼-inch squares.
- Jane notes: the dough was super duper crumbly. I really had to work it on the floured board to get it to come together. Also, it was difficult to roll it out into a square, so I pressed and rolled it out into a circle. After removing the dough from the refrigerator, I evenly cut the circle into 16 pie slices, if that makes sense, and form those triangles I rolled the dough into 1¼-inch balls. By doing it this way, I knew that the cookie balls were all the same size and it was just all around easier for me.
- Roll the dough into 1¼-inch balls. (If you have a scale they should each weigh 1 ounce.) Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Hold the cookie steady with one hand and press a light indentation into the top of each with your finger. Jane note: again, the dough was pretty crumbly, even when I had them shaped into balls. I had to sort of press each cookie down and shape it into a circle, then press the indentations in. A note on the indentations – I thought the cracked edges would be pretty, but the caramel oozed out of the cracks, so try not to have too many of cracks. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re just a little golden brown on the sides. Jane note: I had to bake them longer than 15 minutes, my oven runs cool. Let cookies cool. While they’re cooling, make the caramel.
- Combine the sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a medium saucepan. Do not stir. Cook over medium-high heat to a dark caramel, swirling as it begins to brown to distribute the sugar. While the sugar and water are going at it, heat up the cream in a saucepan or microwave just until warm.
- Take off the heat and add your room temperature butter. Whisk the butter in, being sure it’s totally combined. Add your warmed cream and whisk vigorously. Jane note: HOLY STEAM! Be careful when you add the cream”¦a pretty decent amount of HOT steam shot out of the pot when I poured it in and sort of surprised my face. No damage done, but can’t hurt to warn you!
- Spoon a teaspoon of warm caramel into the indentations of your cookies and top with sea salt. You can eat right away or let sit for 2 hours so the caramel sets. Jane note: I sprinkled my coarse sea salt about 5-10 minutes after I filled the cookies with caramel, so that I knew it would stick. The salt sort of disappeared into the caramel, so you couldn’t see it, which was sad because the salt is pretty, but it still tasted divine.
- Makes 16 cookies
Hi! My name is Jane Maynard and you've landed yourself on my blog, This Week for Dinner™. Every Sunday I share a weekly menu...and count on you to share yours! You'll also find other deliciousness that I hope you'll enjoy!
I just made my first thumbprint cookie recently, they are fun! salted caramel is one of my favorite flavors, shortbread is another. these WILL be made soon!
That’s a great combination. Lovely photos, yummy cookies.
These cookies are delicious! The shortbread part was So tasty and the caramel made it even better!
Sooooo delicious!! Love the salty flavor of the caramel — it was the perfect addition!! Yum!!
YUM!
why? why oh why did you have to do this to me??? oh my gosh the look SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. the SOUND soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!! how am i going to resist making them?! well, it’s valentine’s day, so maybe i’ll just pretend i made them for valentine’s day… that should go over. (not that anyone will ask. or care.)
oh deary… i’ve just GOT to try them!
These look SO amazing. Mmmm….
they look great!
Just tried these and they’re delicious! Only thing, they would be difficult to store cause the caramel is pretty gooey until the end! But amazing to eat freshly made!
I agree! when my friend made them, the caramel was not nearly as gooey. if you boil the water/sugar longer to a darker brown, then the caramel will be firmer.
here is a page I just found with some helpful caramel info! I will be referencing it next time I make these!
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/candy-making-cooking-up-caramels.html