Recipe: Salted caramel thumbprint cookies

Have you ever made shortbread cookies? This was my first time and I was amazed at how easy it really was!

A while back, my friend J brought me some salted caramel from Laudre in Paris, so I was excited to use it in this recipe! I actually baked these for J&J when I went to visit them in Maryland. Thanks for a lovely time, parents-to-be!

I was concerned that the caramel would make it really super duper sweet, but thankfully, it was not the case. I ate one that was not filled (crazy me), which was also very yummy. If you don’t have any salted caramel, don’t worry – you can make your own!

Recipe: Salted Caramel Thumbprint Cookies
Yields 36 cookies (I made them very small)
From A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract (I added more, like 1 ½ teaspoons)
1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Procedure:

1. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla.

2. Separately, sift together the flour and salt.

3. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together.

4. Dump on a floured board and roll together into a flat square. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

5. After 30 minutes, take out the fridge and cut into 1 1/4-inch squares.

6. Roll the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. If you have a scale they should each weigh 1 ounce.

7. Heat oven to 350 F. 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. (For some reason, my thumbprints were HUGE after baking. Just remember that the indent might be bigger once baked.)

8. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re just a little golden brown on the sides. Let them cool.

9. Make or heat up some caramel over the stove, making sure it doesn’t burn. Spoon a teaspoon of warm caramel into the indentations of your cookies and top with sea salt.

You can make your own caramel by following this recipe. =)

Note: Don’t crowd your cookie sheet unless you want the cookies to stick together like mine did (see above photo). After I was done adding caramel and sea salt to the cookies, I realized that I could make Verona replicas with some strawberry jam! Brilliant! But I didn’t have any jam, so I will have to save it for next time.

Edit: I made these cookies again and instead of salting the cookies in the end, I added a few sprinkles of salt to the caramel and mixed it in. It created a hint of salty right after the sweet – perfect!