The holidays are about to be in full swing and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with some Christmas cookies! These caramel cookies are one of my favorite additions to a holiday treat plate! These, peanut butter blossoms, and Oreo truffles. They’re so easy to make and they taste amazing. I don’t actually know where the trend of making salted caramel cookies started, but I love it. Mostly I just love anything salty and sweet. These salted caramel toffee cookies take it a step even further with the addition of toffee bits to add a nice little crunch to the flavor. It’s the perfect combination of salty, sweet, and cookie dough all rolled into one fantastic cookie. They’ll become your new favorite holiday treat! Oh and by the way, I don’t like toffee. But I love these cookies, so if you aren’t a huge toffee fan, it’s still worth a try!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Sweet and salty – I mentioned it above but if you like the taste of a sweet and salty treat, these are for you. If you don’t, I might recommend skipping these and trying these double chocolate chip pudding cookies instead. No chill dough – there’s no need to chill the dough for these cookies so you can have them from ingredients to eating in under 30 minutes! Holiday flavors – while maybe not traditional holiday flavors like this cranberry orange bread, toffee is a great Christmas flavor to include with your other holiday treats.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Salt – I recommend either sea salt or large salt flakes to give this the real sweet and salty flavor you’re looking for.Butter – make sure it’s unsalted butter that’s nice and soft. If you only have salted, take the added salt out of this recipe. With the salted butter plus salt on top of the cookies, you won’t need any more salt added. Caramel pieces – I used caramel bits that you can find near the chocolate chips in the grocery store, and they were perfect for adding to the cookies and melting on top. Toffee pieces – you can either chop up a Heath bar finely or what I did was used an actual bag of Heath Toffee Pieces, again that you can find near chocolate chips. Much easier and in my opinion, better tasting!
How to make Caramel Toffee Cookies
Making these cookies couldn’t be much easier. As long as you have an oven, a microwave (or a stove), and some baking sheets, you’ll be good to go! Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. You could also use a silicone mat if you’d prefer, I just personally like cookies on parchment better. Start by creaming together the butter and the brown sugar until smooth. Once that’s smooth, add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well. Next slowly add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the sugar mixture. Mix until all ingredients are well blended. Finish the dough off by mixing 1/4 cup caramel pieces and 1/4 cup of toffee pieces into dough. The addition of these into the dough as well as on top really gives these a great flavor. Scoop out dough using a 2 tablespoon (medium) cookie scoop and place dough on prepared baking sheet about 2″ apart. Bake for 10 – 11 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Take them out as soon as the edges start to brown so they don’t burn. You want them to keep that soft chewy texture. Remove from oven and immediately use a round cookie cutter to shape the cookies on the baking sheet. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. You could also just leave them alone, but I really like the perfectly round shape for dipping and drizzling these cookies! Plus, they just look better that way. While cookies are cooling, heat 1/4 cup of caramel at a time either in the microwave or using a double boiler on the stove. Use a spoon to drizzle caramel evenly over the cookies. Make sure your caramel is nice and melted before drizzling so that you can get consistent drizzles. Sprinkle remaining toffee pieces over caramel drizzle and top with sea salt, if desired. I personally think the salt goes so well with the caramel drizzle and slightly sweet cookies, but I understand if some people don’t love the salted caramel flavor! They’re still good without the salt! Let cool completely before serving so that the caramel has a chance to harden slightly! These are great either eaten right away or within a few days later! These would also be great wrapped up and gifted with these Christmas treat tags!
Expert Tips
Spray a microwave safe bowl with cooking spray before melting the caramel to help pour it out better when you drizzle the caramel over the cookies. Work quickly with the caramel so it doesn’t harden before you pour it on the cookies. These are great make ahead cookies because they actually taste even better the second day! Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
If you like these caramel toffee cookies, you’ll love these other easy cookie recipes!
Grinch cookies – these cute Grinch tree cookies are inspired by the original movie and kids will love them!Chocolate cherry cookies – a simple chocolate cookie dough that’s topped with a cherry! They taste just like chocolate covered cherries!Pumpkin cookies with cake mix – if you like pumpkin, you have to try this simple 4-ingredient recipe! S’mores cookies – these delicious cookies start with a pre-made cookie dough then get turned into something delightful with the addition of a little chocolate and marshmallows. Chewy monster cookies – a cookie full of everything you could imagine! Chewy, soft, and delicious.
