A Friday recipe: salted caramel shortbread cookies
1 March 2013
Have I told you all Miss T has become the baker in the family? (Goldie is the butcher. Bun Bun is the candlestick maker. Rub a dub dub.)
She’ll randomly decide something needs to be created in the kitchen and then either go searching for a recipe or create one herself. We were treated last week to salted caramel shortbread cookies. They’re small discs of perfection and can brighten any day. They lit up my whole week.
Miss T can thank Betty Crocker for the inspiration. I thank them both.
Without further ado:
Salted Caramel Shortbread Cookies (makes 30-36)
1 ½ cups butter (at room temperature)
¾ c. sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3 ½ cups flour
1 14 oz. bag caramel candies, unwrapped (3/4 the bag will suffice)
2 T. milk
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T. butter
kosher or sea salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar. (Miss T used the Kitchen-Aid mixer.) Mix in the vanilla extract, then add the flour to make the dough. Roll out the dough between two sheets of wax paper to about ¼-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter – or something else you can find (she used a juice glass, turned upside down) – create the cookies and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, or until just golden on the edges. Transfer them from the cookie sheets to a cooking rack (or they’ll break later on the cookie sheet).
Using a microwave-safe bowl, melt the caramels and milk together for 2 ½ minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally until smooth. We used about a teaspoon of the caramel mixture for each cookie and spread it towards the edges with the back of the spoon.
Also in a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate and butter together for 1 ½ minutes until smooth. We then placed this into a plastic sandwich bag, pushed it into the corner like a pastry bag, and snipped the corner off with scissors – then drizzled it over each cookie. You can just use a spoon for the drizzling effect but we decided to get fancy.
Sprinkle the kosher or sea salt over the top of each. Don’t be stingy.
Let cool before serving or eaters will have caramel and chocolate all over their face.
Have I told you all Miss T has become the baker in the family? (Goldie is the butcher. Bun Bun is the candlestick maker. Rub a dub dub.)
She’ll randomly decide something needs to be created in the kitchen and then either go searching for a recipe or create one herself. We were treated last week to salted caramel shortbread cookies. They’re small discs of perfection and can brighten any day. They lit up my whole week.
Miss T can thank Betty Crocker for the inspiration. I thank them both.
Without further ado:
Salted Caramel Shortbread Cookies (makes 30-36)
1 ½ cups butter (at room temperature)
¾ c. sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3 ½ cups flour
1 14 oz. bag caramel candies, unwrapped (3/4 the bag will suffice)
2 T. milk
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T. butter
kosher or sea salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar. (Miss T used the Kitchen-Aid mixer.) Mix in the vanilla extract, then add the flour to make the dough. Roll out the dough between two sheets of wax paper to about ¼-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter – or something else you can find (she used a juice glass, turned upside down) – create the cookies and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, or until just golden on the edges. Transfer them from the cookie sheets to a cooking rack (or they’ll break later on the cookie sheet).
Using a microwave-safe bowl, melt the caramels and milk together for 2 ½ minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally until smooth. We used about a teaspoon of the caramel mixture for each cookie and spread it towards the edges with the back of the spoon.
Also in a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate and butter together for 1 ½ minutes until smooth. We then placed this into a plastic sandwich bag, pushed it into the corner like a pastry bag, and snipped the corner off with scissors – then drizzled it over each cookie. You can just use a spoon for the drizzling effect but we decided to get fancy.
Sprinkle the kosher or sea salt over the top of each. Don’t be stingy.
Let cool before serving or eaters will have caramel and chocolate all over their face.
MAN, they sound delicious! Hats off to Miss T!
All I can say is “mmm mmm”.