Chewy Salted Caramel Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Salted Caramel Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies. Soft, chewy, and thin chocolate cookies topped with an oooey gooey salted caramel filling.

I know what you’re thinking. “Delaney, another chocolate cookie recipe, Do you develop anything else?” I promise I do and have non chocolate cookie recipes coming soon, but they are my favorite and I can’t miss an opportunity to make one. I had extra caramel from a sticky toffee pudding that I made and after a few late night baking experiments, these heavenly cookies were born. They’re sweet, salty, and so decadent from the chocolate caramel combo. They’re almost like Valentines chocolate caramels, but in cookie form.

The Ingredients:

These cookies don’t need any fancy ingredients. I make my own batch of caramel sauce while making them, but you can also use a store bought caramel sauce. The store bought caramel sauce may take longer to set, but it will do the trick.

Weigh the dough for this recipe, and all baking recipes, if you can. It makes a more accurate dough and helps minimize inaccuracies with tricky to ingredients like flour and brown sugar that can.

The Caramel Cookie Process:

These cookies take some time to make, but I promise they’re worth it. Chill bake bake chill is the process to be exact (I promise it will make sense later).

Start by creaming the butters and sugar together with a hand mixer, or a spatula and some elbow grease. If you’re using a hand mixer, take the mixture past the stage of it just crumbling and cream until it becomes cohesive and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated and no streaks of egg remain.

In a separate small bowl, combine the baking soda, powder, flour, cocoa, and salt. Whisk until the cocoa is fully incorporated and no specks of flour are visible.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix just until no floury spots remain. Scoop the dough into scant quarter cup balls and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Roll the balls in the remaining sugar then dip your thumb in flour and press a well into the center of each cookie. Then cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. This helps the cookies spread no more than they already do.

Once the cookies have chilled, bake for 8-10 minutes in an oven preheated to 350ºF. They will still be very soft on the top but will harden as they cool. Re-indent the wells as necessary and let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, spoon a heaping teaspoon of caramel into the center of each cookie and bake on the top rack of your oven for 1 minute and 30 seconds- I know it’s specific but it’s the goldilocks of time for these cookies. You can totally eat them hot out of the oven, but I prefer to let them chill for 30 minutes so the caramel fully sets up.

The Recap:

I know that might feel like a lot of steps just for cookies, but if you’re a chocolate lover like me, they’re so worth it. I always make the dough the night before when I make these cookie to give myself less tasks the next day.

No caramel, no problem. These cookies are just as good without the caramel, just don’t make the wells and only bake once. I also love rolling the dough in sprinkles for a festive surprise and baking for an extra oomph.

Chocolate has no season so you can make these cookies any time of year, I especially love them in holiday cookie boxes or for a valentines surprise.

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Resources:

Like chocolate cookies? Try my chocolate crinkle cookies

https://dishingwithdelaney.com/cookies/no-mixer-chocolate-crinkle-cookies/

Caramel Sauce recipe?

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-salted-caramel-recipe/#tasty-recipes-68127