Salted Caramel & Toasted Coconut Thumbprints

As soon as I spotted these on The Baker Chic, I knew I  had to make them. And soon. I'm a huge fan of toasted coconut and have been on a major caramel kick lately, you might have noticed from this and these. The day I saw these, I decided I would make my go-to salted caramel sauce for the filling as Audra's recipe calls for store bought caramels and the thought alone of unwrapping all of those candies was enough to drive me over the edge. I went straight home from work and made the sauce since I knew it would have to cool pretty much overnight. The following day I rushed home from work and got started on a half batch. I was not disappointed, these were awesome. You can find my recipe for the salted caramel sauce here.

Salted Caramel & Toasted Coconut Thumbprints
Yields about 24 large cookies
Printable Recipe

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 large eggs beaten
6 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
Flaky Sea Salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add vanilla. Once combined, add in your dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Roll dough into 1.5 inch balls. Dip each ball first into the beaten egg and then in the coconut, pressing to make sure it adheres. Place on your prepared baking sheet and make a thumb indentation into each cookie. Bake for 20-23 minutes until golden brown and coconut is toasted. Upon removal I used a 1/2 teaspoon to re-press the indentation, making sure it was nice and deep so it can hold more of the yummy caramel! Let cool then fill each cookie with your caramel sauce and sprinkle with your flaked sea salt.

Recipe adapted from The Baker Chic

You can find my Salted Caramel Sauce post here or the printable recipe here.


© 2012 - 2012 Mostly Sweet & Sometimes Salty - All Rights Reserved.

Salted Caramel Sauce

So, it's Saturday night and am I out for a night on the town having fun? Nope, I am in my pj's (at 5pm) and sharing this salted caramel sauce with you. Don't worry though, this is my sick idea of fun. I'm going to be using it in a couple of the recipes coming up so I thought I'd get prepared and make it in advance. This stuff is seriously good. Since making it earlier this afternoon, I have found approximately 1,458 things to eat it on. Apple slices, bananas, ice cream, cookies, pretzels whatever, you get the point, it's good on EVERYTHING. You need to make this right now. Go ahead, I'll wait.....

It also makes a great gift and super simple to make. Now I know many of you may be intimidated by making caramel but trust me, there is nothing to it. I usually don't even measure the ingredients but wanted to give you a little more confidence by having a recipe for you to follow. This recipe as is is fairly thick when completely cooled so if you want a thinner sauce, just increase the amount of cream, though keep in mind if you plan on warming it before you use it, it will thin slightly.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Yields enough to fill a 16oz Mason jar

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Measure out your cream, salt and vanilla and have them ready to go by your stove top. Place sugar and water in a large saucepan over medium high heat, stir just to moisten sugar. Allow to cook untouched until a dark amber color is reached. This took about 8 minutes for me. Now I don't want to scare you but it goes from dark amber to burnt very quickly so as soon as you get to the desired color, remove from heat and immediately begin whisking in your cream in a slow steady stream. This will cause the caramel to bubble up, just continue whisking and add your salt and vanilla extract.  Once combined, that's it, you've got caramel sauce! Transfer to your desired container to cool.

Check back for some yummy recipes using this sauce. (If I don't use it all before then!)

Chocolate Covered Salted Caramels

I will start by saying that for the most part, I love everything about baking (minus the clean up - boy do I make a mess!) However, one of the few things I absolutely cannot stand is covering things in chocolate, candy melts, etc.. I find it incredibly frustrating and each time vow to never do it again.

Having said that, I had to find a way to re-create the salted caramels from Costco that I tried recently. As usual, Costco broke my heart because I fell in love with one their products just to find out they no longer carry it. What's a girl to do? ( besides pout, which I may or may not have done the rest of the day after the trip to Costco)  I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I started with a basic caramel recipe and let those firm up overnight. The following night, I started the dreaded dipping process, finishing with a touch of flaked sea salt on top. As you can see by my picture below, I only made it half way through the batch before deciding to leave the rest plain. Oh well, at least I dipped enough to satisfy my craving!

Chocolate Covered Salted Caramels

Printable Recipe

2 cups dark brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8oz chocolate (I used callebaut)

Flaked sea salt to sprinkle on top

Melt butter in a large saucepan, then add brown sugar, corn syrup, salt and condensed milk. Bring mixture to 145 degrees on your candy thermometer, over med-high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add your vanilla, it will bubble up so be careful. Pour into a parchment lined 8x8 or 9x9 square pan, let cool overnight until firm.

Cut your caramels into desired size, mine were about 1x1. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler over very low heat. Once thoroughly melted, begin dipping each of your caramels. (Unfortunately, I don't have any advice or tips for you on this one, I used a fork but it was a mess) Sprinkle each caramel with sea salt after dipping, once complete I found it best to let them harden in the fridge. Enjoy!