These Salted Caramel Kiss Cookies are THE cure for any cookies & caramel craving. Soft, chewy, and made with the depth of browned butter. Lightly sprinkled with flaked sea salt. One bite of these caramel kiss cookies = mmm, phenomenal.
Confession: after Valentines Day, I saw a variety of Hershey’s Kisses on sale. And I hoarded without abandon. I normally wouldn’t buy a bag of caramel kisses, but since they were on sale and all, I tossed them in my cart.
After said caramel kisses sat in my pantry a couple weeks, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d do with them. When in doubt, cookies are the answer. That’s often how things go down in my kitchen, anyways.
So, I decided to make caramel kiss cookies. Which is how these Salted Caramel Kiss Cookies came to life…
These little guys turned out super soft, chewy, and rich with the flavors of caramel and browned butter. I rarely brown my butter, but these cookies are simply irresistible because of the golden depth of browned butter.
I cut down quite a bit on the sugar amounts for the cookie dough, in order to balance out the sweetness of the caramel kisses and caramel drizzle. My go-to caramel sauce recipe, by the way, works wonders on these cookies and a myriad of other treats…I use it on these dark fudge brownies, ice-cream, apples, and anything else that shouts out for caramel sauce.
If you’re craving some soft, chewy caramel cookies with a little kiss of chocolate… this is just the thing. Even if you don’t normally buy caramel kisses, one bite of this cookie, and you might just start hoarding them the next time you see them on sale.
These cookies are wonderfully chewy, and I suspect they would keep very well for days at room temp, in an airtight container. Though I wasn’t able to put it to the test, because my entire double batch was eaten up by friends and family in one night. Next time, I’ll hide a few!
Enjoy!
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Salted Caramel Kiss Cookies
- Yield: 40 cookies 1x
- Category: dessert, cookies
Description
These salted caramel kiss cookies are chewy, soft, rich with browned butter, and dripping with golden caramel. Flaky sea salt (or kosher salt) gives it that extra flavor boost, creating an extraordinary cookie!
Ingredients
- *1 recipe for homemade caramel sauce (link below recipe)
- 14 TB salted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 cups, plus 2 TB all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp table salt (fine salt)
- 1 large egg + 1 large yolk
- 2 TB vanilla extract
- 40 Caramel Kisses
- flaked sea salt (kosher salt can work, too) for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a heavy skillet, heat butter over medium until melted. Constantly swirl or stir the butter until it turns into a lightly golden brown color. Take care to continue swirling/stirring, to prevent burning. Once butter is browned, remove from heat and set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Mix brown sugar together with warm browned butter until no lumps remain, about 30 seconds with electric mixer.
- Add egg, yolk, and vanilla to butter mixture, whisking until smooth.
- Slowly add in flour mixture to the butter mixture on medium-low just until fully incorporated.
- If dough is sticky, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill in fridge 30 minutes or more.
- Make dough balls about 1 inch round, and place dough balls on lined baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Bake about 7 minutes (do not overbake; cookies will be very soft upon removal, but will set as they cool.)
- Immediately upon removing warm cookies from oven, press a caramel kiss into the center of each.
- Drizzle with warm caramel sauce.
Notes
2 TB vanilla extract may sound like a lot, but that’s truly the amount we use and it adds so much depth to these cookies. However, if you prefer to bring it down to 1 TB vanilla, you can definitely do that.
If you enjoyed these cookies, please come back and give them a rating ♡
- Recipe for Caramel Sauce is here.
Source: Chew Out Loud, adapted from Cookies and Cups
Here’s that irresistible dark fudge brownie, with salted caramel!
These are the best shortbread cookies, with buttery awesomeness and only 3 ingredients!
Cookies ‘n Cream Cookies, for those who are into add-ins. YES. These are indescribable.
I saw these on FG this morning and I actually squeaked out loud. They look sooooo yummy!
Hee hee! The mark of a true foodie :). Thanks for coming over, Lindsey!
these look delish!
Thanks! They taste as great as they look 🙂
Is that suppose to be 14 Tbsp of butter or is it suppose to be 1/4 Tbsp?
Laura, it’s 14 TB… as in 1 3/4 cups. Not diet food, but kind of worth the cals 🙂 🙂 🙂
Only 1 cup of brown sugar for this recipe?
Yes, Donna, I just pack it tight and it’s pretty sweet, especially with the caramel kisses 🙂 Thanks for being here today and happy baking! 🙂
Most kiss cookie recipes only call for 2 teaspoons of vanilla, but your’s calls for 2 TB. Is this correct?
Nancy, you’re right that it sounds like a lot! I really do use 2 tablespoons vanilla in this particular recipe; since these kiss cookies aren’t the classic peanut butter version, the vanilla gives them an extra boost. I made a note on recipe that 1 TB will work, too. Thanks so much, Nancy! Hope you bake and enjoy these! 🙂