Recipe #16: Salty Chocolate & Caramel Butter Cookies

This challenge really has turned into a bit of a challenge. At first I thought, “one recipe a week, no sweat!” And it’s not that I have a lack of new recipes to try, but finding time to post them is another story. Some weeks I’ve cooked more than one new recipe, which helps on the weeks I don’t have time for a new one at all, but then writing them up sometimes seems more time consuming then actually making the meal! Which I know is not at all true. But trying to fit some writing into my day at work, well, that can be tough (it could also be because I am quite wordy….which takes more time.). In any case, that’s what I’ve signed on for and I’m not about to give up now.

Why not a recipe for something sweet for a change? For those who enjoy a little sweet/salty treat after dinner, these might be right up your alley. Even though this recipe didn’t turn out exactly right the first time (you’ll see why shortly), they were still very delicious, and it was very hard to eat just one.

After finding all the ingredients for this recipe (the flaky sea salt and espresso powder game me the run-around) I was ready to bake. Unfortunately, this recipe only uses a small amount of both the salt and espresso powder, but at least I’ll have these for next time. And where I made my mistake in baking was when buying the caramels. I didn’t have the recipe on hand when I picked them up (at the dollar store), so I didn’t boy the right amount, which meant the glaze was a bit runnier than it was supposed to. Soooo… when I put them into a container for storage, the glaze ran off and kind of created a big mess at the bottom of caramel goo… but then we realized that we could just pop the container into the microwave for a few seconds and just dip our cookies into the glaze. Delicious! The hint of salt on the sweet caramel was really enjoyable.

Since this recipe made quite a big batch, probably about 30 or so, we didn’t (not couldn’t, didn’t) eat them all; but instead of tossing them, I took all the remaining cookies, tossed them in my food processor, and now I have a great cookie crumble topping for ice cream!

INGREDIENTS

1 ¼ cups (20 tbsps) unsalted butter, softened

½ cups cocoa powder

1 tsp instant espresso powder

1 cup white sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 tbsps vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups flour

1 (14 ounce) bag soft caramel candies

¼ cup heavy cream

½ tsp flaky sea salt

DIRECTIONS

MELT 4 tbsp butter (1/4 cup), cocoa powder and espresso in a saucepan over medium heat; stir until mixture forms smooth paste then cool for 15 minutes.

MIX together remaining cup of butter, sugar, salt, and cooled cocoa mixture on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add yolks and vanilla and mix until combined. Reduce speed to low, add flour in three additions, and mix until cohesive dough forms. Divide into three disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.

PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

ROLL each disk to 3/16-inch thickness. Using 2 ½-inch round cutter, cut out cookies and place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake until centers are just set, 10 to 12 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Cool 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

MELT caramels and heavy cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Top each cookie with heaping teaspoon of glaze and sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool 30 minutes.