Brown Sugar Shortbread Caramel Thumbprint

Brown Sugar Shortbread Caramel Thumbprint Cookies: The brown sugar makes the shortbread rich and the oozy, gooey caramel centres are perfect.

I’m so excited to begin our Christmas Cookie Week.  I’ll be sharing a different favourite cookie recipe everyday this week.

We love Christmas cookies.  I have such happy memories of my Grandma and her Christmas cookies.  In the days before stand mixers, dishwashers, and convection ovens she’d bake Christmas cookies for a week.  Through the Christmas season she’d always have a plate of assorted Christmas cookies to offer us when we visited her.

These brown sugar shortbread caramel thumbprints are so delicious.  The brown sugar adds a richness to the shortbread base, and the caramel stays perfectly oozy and soft.

Brown Sugar Shortbread Caramel Thumbprints

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Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups all purpose flour

Caramel Filling

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/3 cup whipping cream (35%)
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp salt

Instructions

For the Dough:

1. In a stand mixer, mix butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy and light.
2. Add in flour, and combine until the dough comes together.  Take care not to over mix.
3. Roll 1 tbsp of dough into a ball, and use a spoon handle or your thumb to create the thumbprint in the centre of each cookie.  Bake on a cookie sheet at 350F for 12-14 minutes until golden brown.  Allow to cool before filling.

Caramel Filling

1. In a pan combine sugar and corn syrup.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat without stirring.  Use a pastry brush dipped in cold water to brush down the sides of the pan with cold water to help prevent crystallization.  Boil 4 to5 minutes until the caramel is dark amber.
2. Remove from the heat and add the whipping cream, butter, vanilla and salt.  The caramel will bubble, so take care with this step.  Next, return the pan to a medium-high heat and cook while stirring until the caramel thickens slightly.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  (If the caramel becomes to cool and stiff to work with reheat.)
3. Spoon the warm caramel into the cookies.  Let set at least 5 minutes.  Optional, sprinkle the cookies with edible glitter.

We’ve sprinkled our cookies with a little edible glitter to dress them up for  Christmas, because at Christmas everyone needs a little sparkle. 😉

These cookies are just the first we’ll be sharing with you for Christmas Cookie Week.  They make such a great addition to a holiday cookie plate or buffet. 😉

They’re especially perfect for the caramel lover.  And if you have a chocolate lover too, these would be great with a  drizzle of chocolate over them also.

With Brown Sugar Shortbread Caramel Thumbprints, life really is a party!