Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles

Photography and Recipe Development by Erin Clarkson

This recipe from Erin Clarkson of the blog, Cloudy Kitchen, is inspired by one of her favourite cookies in the town where she went to university—a giant cookie with melty pockets of salted caramel studded throughout. She’s added a holiday snickerdoodle spin on this, adding crushed caramel into the dough for extra chew, and rolling it in cinnamon sugar for a classic snickerdoodle taste. Find this exclusive recipe in our brand new 2018 Holiday Cookies Special Issue, here

Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles
Author: 
 
Makes about 46
Ingredients
  • Salted Caramel (recipe follows)
  • 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, softened
  • ¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar, divided
  • ¼ cup (55 grams) firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 large egg (50 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon (4 grams) vanilla extract
  • 2¾ cups plus 2 teaspoons (350 grams) all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon (1.5 grams) kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon (1 gram) ground cinnamon
  • Flaked sea salt, for finishing
Instructions
  1. Prepare Salted Caramel. Break into large chunks, and weigh out 1 cup (200 grams) caramel. Place into a resealable plastic bag, and break with a rolling pin until it forms small chunks. Set aside.
  2. Place remaining Salted Caramel in the work bowl of a food processor; pulse until finely ground. Weigh out ¾ cup (150 grams) ground caramel. (The caramel, once ground, will pull moisture out of the environment very quickly and start to clump, so use the ground caramel fresh out of the food processor.)
  3. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, ground caramel, ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar, and brown sugar at high speed until creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. With mixer on medium speed, add egg and vanilla, beating until combined.
  5. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating just until combined. Stir in 1 cup (200 grams) caramel chunks until evenly distributed.
  6. In a small bowl, stir together cinnamon and remaining ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar. Using a 1-tablespoon scoop, scoop dough, and roll into balls. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on prepared pans. Freeze for 5 minutes.
  7. Bake, one batch at a time, until golden brown and puffed up, 11 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on pans. Sprinkle with flaked sea salt. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Note: If you do not want to bake all of these cookies at once, the dough, once rolled in the cinnamon sugar, can be stored in a resealable plastic bag in the freezer. Freeze until solid on a baking sheet before transferring to a bag.

 
Salted Caramel
 
Makes about 2 cups
Ingredients
  • 2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
Instructions
  1. Line a half sheet pan with a nonstick baking mat.
  2. In a medium saucepan, heat sugar over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. (Sugar will clump as you heat, but continue to stir, and it will soon smooth out.) Cook until sugar turns amber colored and is just beginning to smoke slightly. Immediately pour onto prepared pan, and sprinkle with salt. Let cool completely.
Notes
Pro Tip: Have everything ready to go for the Salted Caramel. There are a few seconds between a toasty caramel and a burnt sugar, so you want to be able to pour out the caramel as soon as it is ready.

 

 

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1 COMMENT

  1. For the 2019 holiday baking season, this was my family’s favorite cookie. Just sweet enough, My cookies were puffier than the ones in the photo. But no one is complaining.

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