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Delicious soft and chew sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting and a salted caramel drizzle
Hi everyone! Chelsea back from Chelsea’s Messy Apron and today I’m sharing one of my family’s favorite sugar cookies! A soft and chewy sugar cookie base with the most flavorful cream cheese frosting, a caramel drizzle, and some sea salt to finish everything up!
These cookies are inspired by a local cookie shop. They have the most amazing sugar cookie varieties and we make way too many stops there! This is a “copycat” of one of their most popular cookies. Honestly we think this version is even better!
These cookies do take a bit of work, but I promise they are well worth it! And as school comes back into session these cookies make the perfect treat for both you and your kids 🙂
Tips to make these Salted Caramel Sugar Cookies the BEST:
- Correctly measure the flour: If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour you will pack in way too much flour (which will result in cake-like cookies with the wrong texture). To properly measure your flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup until its overfilled. Then use the back of a butter knife to level the measuring cup at the top. You’ll have a perfect flour measurement now!
- Use a room temperature egg: This ensures the egg disperses more evenly into the batter giving these cookies a lighter texture (the egg traps air). Soaking refrigerated eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for about 10 minutes is a quick way to do this. Otherwise, pull the egg out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before use. You also want to make sure the butter is at room temperature so it will cream with the sugars properly!
- Finally, it really helps to chill the dough. When you chill dough the butter solidifies which allows it to melt slower when it’s baked. This creates a thicker cookie which prevents the cookie from going flat and becoming crispy. Chilling the dough also gives the sugar time to absorb more of the liquid and become more concentrated. A more concentrated sugar is going to give you a chewier and sweeter cookie. While this recipe doesn’t require you to chill the dough, I like to pop them into the fridge for at least 10 minutes before baking!
More delicious cookies from Chelsea’s Messy Apron:
Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Non Cakey)
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Salted Caramel Sugar Cookies
Delicious soft and chew sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting and a salted caramel drizzle
Ingredients
Cookies
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar for pressing
Frosting
- ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter
- 8 ounces room temperature cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Caramel Drizzle
- 10 ounces unwrapped soft caramels I used 2 (5-ounce) bags of Werther's soft caramels
- ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
- sea salt for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add ⅔ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup powdered sugar, and ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter to a large bowl and beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add ⅓ cup vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 large egg, and 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream and mix until combined.
- Whisk together 3 cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar, and ½ teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix until combined.
- Scoop the dough into balls the size of golf balls, about 3 tablespoons, and roll them into uniform balls with your hands. Place them on the prepared baking sheets leaving 2 inches between them.
- Add 3 tablespoons granulated sugar to a small bowl. Dip the bottom of a flat-bottomed glass into the sugar and then press the glass down on the dough balls until the cookies are about ½ centimeter thick in the center and the edges crack like the pictures. Dip the glass back in the sugar between each cookie.
- Bake for 7-8 minutes. The cookies look slightly underbaked, but they will continue to cook after they come out of the oven.
- Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Add ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter and 8 ounces room temperature cream cheese to a large bowl and beat on medium-high speed with a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until completely smooth.
- Add ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract, ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon and mix until combined.
- With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add 3 cups powdered sugar and beat until well fully combined and smooth. Frost completely cooled cookies with the finished frosting.
Caramel Drizzle
- Add 10 ounces unwrapped soft caramels and ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream to a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until the caramels are fully melted, then remove the pan from the heat and set it aside to cool and slightly thicken.
- Once thickened, drizzle the caramel over the frosted cookies and add a sprinkle of sea salt. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Calories: 339kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 3gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 9gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 43mgSodium: 148mgPotassium: 75mgFiber: 0.4gSugar: 32gVitamin A: 437IUVitamin C: 0.1mgCalcium: 34mgIron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!
I love it when people give a different twist to sugar cookies. Makes them even better!