When I think fall, salted caramel immediately comes to mind. Maybe it’s the candy apples my mom always gave us for a special treat as we approached the season or that my salt craving goes up as the temperature goes down, but I can’t get enough of it. I baked you a thick, soft, chewy sugar cookie, topped with a beautiful pool of salted caramel icing to kick off fall in the name of Fall Cookie Week with my friend Michael of Inspired by Charm. You can catch up here. But for now, let’s talk about these Salted Caramel Sugar Cookies.
These cookies are so much easier than you’d anticipate. No fussy details, just a simple sugar cookie and some icing. I start by rolling the dough into large balls and press with a glass to flatten. Then I use a measuring spoon or small bottle to create a pool for the salted caramel icing. Finally, I melt the icing in a measuring cup so that it can easily pour into the cookie pool and harden just perfect, but a spoon also works well – use whatever you’re comfortable with.
The most important thing to remember when baking sugar cookies is to not over bake, so watch them carefully as each oven can vary slightly and you’ll be rewarded with craveable cookies.
Why do I call them salted caramel sugar cookies? Because that’s how our friends and family {my market research team} described them when they took a bite. The slightly salty brown sugar icing is the perfect compliment. So go ahead, try them for yourself and let me know what you think!
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Just one more day of Fall Cookie Week! Michael and I have 2 more recipes for you. I hope you enjoy these salted caramel sugar cookies as much as we all do. Now it’s time to visit Inspired by Charm for his Apple Cinnamon Cookie Bars. Seriously. You can find all of my recipes here.
Salted Caramel Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c salted butter, softened
- 3/4 c vegetable oil
- 1 1/4 c brown sugar, packed
- 1 c powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 Tbsp water
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 6 c flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
ICING
- icing
- 2 Tbsp butter, softened
- 3 Tbsp milk
- 1/2 c brown sugar, packed
- 1 c powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Combine butter, oil, sugars, water and vanilla until smooth.
- Add in eggs and mix until just combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar.
- Gradually blend dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Refrigerate dough 30 minutes and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- On a lined cookie sheet, drop large {golf ball size} dough balls and press with a small greased glass, followed by a spoon to make a pool for the icing.
- Bake 8 minutes.
- For the icing:
- Cream butter, milk, sugars, vanilla and salt.
- Using a teaspoon, fill the baked sugar cookies.
LET’S CONNECT!
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Your cookies look beautiful, I’m just wondering where the caramel part comes in because they seems to be brown sugar cookies with a brown sugar frosting. Am I supposed to sprinkle salt over the frosting at the end to make it “salted caramel”?
I am going to put this cookie on my Christmas cookie list!
Hi I just have two questions about this recipe- in the icing part, it calls for 1/4 salt.. what is the measurement on this? And then do you add the salt in with step 8 in the icing?
Thanks! They look amazing! I want to try these!
I have the same question as Jen, I thought these were salted caramel cookies? The icing does not resemble salted caramel at all, and contains no salt…
The icing includes 4 ingredients I use in salted caramel and according to my friends and family, that’s exactly what the cookies taste like. I hope you enjoy them as well!
Do you think I could substitute coconut oil for the veg oil?
I’m not sure – I don’t bake with coconut oil, sorry
Lisa, I used coconut coil in my cookies and they turned out great. I also had to substitute gluten free flour and vegan butter to meet my husband’s dietary restrictions. We served them this weekend at a party and everyone loved them and had no idea the difference!
DELICIOUS! I happened to have some coarse salt on hand so I sprinkled a little on the tops! These cookies are to die for! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks SO much for sharing, Mary! You have to try my melt in your mouth sugar cookies, too. Happy Holidays!
These look beautiful, and I bet they taste great. I want to try them with chai spices, too, as I think that would be a nice variation. I think we just found our Christmas cookie!!! Thanks so much for posting : )
Thanks, Melissa, that sounds like a fun twist. Happy Holidays!
Hi Julie,
We made your cookies this weekend and couldn’t create the icing as yours appeared. We followed the steps however they were very gritty even after blending for an extended period of time. We ended up cooking on the stove and drizzling over top and it worked really well and still very tasty.
Any ideas what we could be doing wrong?
Did you try this tip included in my post? “Finally, I melt the icing in a measuring cup so that it can easily pour into the cookie pool and harden just perfect”
What size balls ? oneTablespoon?
Large golf ball size. Enjoy!
How much salt is in the icing? 1/4 what? I can’t wait to try these out for my work cookie exchange!
My apologies – an optional teaspoon of salt.
How many dozen does this batch make?
3 dozen’ish depending on the size dough balls you make. Enjoy!
I got 83 cookies
Would it be ok to refrigerate the dough over night?
Sure! It will just have to thaw until moldable. Keep it in an airtight container for the best results.
Hoping for a quick answer here – is the dough suppost to be dry and crumbly ?? It won’t even squish together as dough
No, it’s a slightly drier dough since it’s a sugar cookie, but easily moldable. Did you refrigerate for an extended period of time? If so, allow the dough to sit out until moldable. (And always keep it covered).
Do you wait for the cookies to cool before adding the frosting?
Thanks!
Yes, they don’t have to be completely cooled, just a few minutes so they set. Happy Holidays!
Hi Julie, when you say you melt the icing in a measuring cup, do you melt it in the microwave? If so, for how long (approx)?
Thanks!
Yes, just 10-15 seconds, until pourable.
I’m wondering if these would work if I flattened them out a bit and used the icing to cover them fully? Or are they too crumbly for that? I want to add red and green food coloring to the icing to make Christmas tree ornaments.
You can certainly do that. I don’t think they’d make great ornaments though. I have a colored salt dough ornament recipe though if you’d like!
Is there a trick to the icing? I can’t get it to harden at all. It’s super runny. More powdered sugar?
It will harden as it cools