If you’re at a loss of what to make your neighbors for Christmas this year, let these cookies be it. I’m not kidding when I say they are probably the best cookies I have ever eaten in my entire life. {And trust me, I’ve eaten a lot of cookies. ;)} They’re buttery, caramely, and delicious – they pretty much taste like a little piece of heaven right outta the oven.
Word to the wise – do not, and I repeat, do not use unsalted butter for this recipe. That was my mistake the first time I made these and it’s amazing what a difference some salt will do. After four attempts to make this recipe worthy of sharing, I can honestly say that it’s perfect now and it’s ruined me for any cookie I will ever eat again.
Salted Caramel Shortbread Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 & 1/2 cup {3 sticks} salted butter, divided
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 cups bread flour {or all-purpose flour is fine}
- 1 cup corn starch
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 3/8 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- Flaky sea salt for sprinkling
Directions:
- Cream together 2 sticks plus 2 Tbsp. butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour and corn starch and add to the butter mixture; Mix well. {If the dough seems overly dry, add another Tbsp. of butter, but only if you have to.}
- Place dough in refrigerator for 20 minutes to let it firm up.
- Preheat oven to 325ºF.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes. {Do not let the cookies turn brown! This will result in hard cookies.}
- Place cookies on cooling rack.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the remaining 6 Tbsp. of butter, the brown sugar, the corn syrup and the whipping cream; Stir over medium heat until smooth.
- Drizzle caramel over the cookies with a spoon and top with sea salt. {I transferred my cookies to wax paper during this step to help save on mess. You’re welcome.}
Have fun trying not to eat all three dozen of these by yourself. 😉
-Sarah
Your print/pdf button doesn’t work FYI
These look delicious! thanks for sharing at Talking Tuesday!
Ok, I tried these, rolled tablespoons of dough into balls (it was pretty dry and crumbly) and put them on the cookie sheet and after 9-10 minutes, opened the oven and the balls were still sitting there, thought they’d melt down into round, flat cookies! Did I mess something up?
Hey Eileen, I’m so sorry to hear that! How frustrating! It could definitely be the altitude, but my first thought was the consistency of your butter. That will greatly affect whether your cookies stay more firm or if they will melt down flat. I’ve made these 6 or 7 times in the last few weeks and some batches have been drier than others and I had to flatten those ones before cooking. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I will definitely make note of it in the directions!
So I tried this and the dough was pretty dry, rolled balls and put them on cookie sheet, assuming they’d spread out to flat cookies like the photo. Opened oven after 9-10 minutes and there they are, still shaped like balls! did I mess something up? I followed the recipe to the letter!
not sure what I did wrong, I followed the recipe exactly, but my cookies were in there for ten minutes and still stayed in balls and didn’t flatten out at all. Is there an ingredient missing? Maybe its the altitude or something.
Hey Katherine! I’m so sorry they didn’t turn out right. Apparently, you’re not the only one with this problem, so take a look at the comment about where I answered your question. Let me know if you have any other questions! Sorry again!
Mine did the same thing, and I made a double batch….. any tips? I baked 5 little balls and same thing…. they are very dry. Should I just add some butter to my dough?
I wish you would allow this to just be printed without having to download another program. Now I won’t be able to make these because I’m not going to be able to print it.