Recipe for the best salted caramel cookies – no rolling!
If you’re craving something truly special yet simple to prepare, these soft cookies with salted caramel will be a hit! They are the perfect combination of a delicately crispy crust and a wonderfully soft, melt-in-your-mouth interior. The whole is complemented by a homemade caramel sauce with a deep flavor, balanced by a pinch of salt that brings out its sweetness and gives the dessert character.
Best of all – you don’t need any complicated techniques or specialized equipment. You’ll prepare the dough in a few moments, without rolling and unnecessary mess in the kitchen. This recipe is perfect for quick sweet cravings as well as for treating guests. Try it once, and soft salted caramel cookies will become a permanent fixture in your baking repertoire!
Why bake these caramel cookies?
Recently, while driving my daughter to school, I told her I’d like to bake something but had no idea what. And she suggested I make salted caramel cookies. The same day, the cookies were already baked, and when my daughter came back from school with her friends, they were basically eaten right away. The girls really loved the cookies, so I can share the recipe here. And why is it worth baking them? Because they are very easy to prepare. They don’t require rolling or cutting with cookie cutters, they don’t need a kitchen counter, and they make little mess. So be sure to try the recipe and bake these caramel cookies for yourself and your loved ones!
What ingredients are needed to bake salted caramel cookies?
To make these soft on the inside and crispy on the outside cookies drizzled with salted caramel at home, you will need a few basic ingredients. Below is a condensed list of the products I used and possible substitutes.
- butter – extra 82% butter will be best, so that the cookie dough chills well and firms up, but ultimately vegetable butter can also be used – if the dough is too soft, you can add a little more flour to it
- baking soda – if you don’t have baking soda, you can use 2 teaspoons of baking powder instead
- heavy cream – for the caramel sauce, it’s best to use 30% cream – I used UHT cream from a carton
Can salt be omitted from the recipe?
You can, but salt breaks up the sweetness of the caramel and gives the cookies a distinctive flavor. The combination of salty and sweet flavors makes the cookies taste much better. And salt is also a natural flavor enhancer :)
Why do my soft salted caramel cookies turn out hard?
Most often, it’s a matter of baking for too long. Cookies should be slightly soft when removed from the oven – they will firm up gently as they cool. So, if the cookies have a nice, golden-brown color at the end of baking, take them out even if they are still soft and cannot be lifted. As they cool, they will harden on the surface, and once completely cooled, you can easily remove them from the baking sheet. If the cookies spread and merged during baking, you can cut them with a knife immediately after removing them.
Why did my cookies spread too much and not keep their shape?
If the cookie dough is not well chilled and is still soft, then after forming into balls and baking, the butter contained in them will quickly heat up and spread significantly. That’s why good chilling of the dough is so important. You can even prepare it much earlier. The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 24–48 hours. This will make the flavor even more intense, and the cookies will have a nice shape after baking.
Can I use store-bought caramel sauce?
If you don’t have time, or don’t feel up to making homemade caramel sauce, you can of course use store-bought sauce. It will just be stickier, because the one from my recipe sets faster.
How to store soft salted caramel cookies?
After completely cooling, it’s a good idea to transfer caramel and salt cookies to an airtight container with a lid. If you don’t want them to stick together too much from the caramel, arrange them in layers and separate each layer with baking paper. In the container and at room temperature, you can store them for 3–4 days, but they will easily last longer – over time, the cookies will become a bit harder. You can also slightly warm them before serving to restore their freshness.
You can also freeze the cookies for about 3 months.
Finally, I can say one thing — if you love the combination of sweetness with a hint of savory, these soft salted caramel cookies are truly hard to beat. They are simple, quick, and incredibly satisfying – both to prepare and to… eat. Bake them once, and there’s a good chance you’ll return to this recipe more often than you plan. This is one of those desserts that simply always works – whether for a quiet afternoon with coffee or a gathering with loved ones.
Let me know in the comments how your soft salted caramel cookies turned out – I’d love to read your opinion! And if you liked the recipe, share it or save it for later so you always have it handy! You can easily do this in my app, or on my Instagram.
Recommended homemade cookies recipes
Be sure to also try my other recipes for delicious homemade cookies with various flavors and baked with different additions; here I recommend three such recipes, among others, and many more on the blog.
