With the holidays soon approaching I thought that I should share one of my favorite cookies, of course, you certainly don’t have to wait for the Holiday season to make these.
Caramel cup cookies are a sure thing any time of year; they are a perfect fit for any gathering or party.
They are not that difficult to make, so you don’t have to be a pastry chef to
make these. We can now use these
Kraft Caramel Bits,
so you don't have to take the plastic wrap off of the caramels what great
idea.
Let’s start off by making the pastry dough:
Here is what you need:
- 1 (8oz. package) cream cheese
- 1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks)
- 3 cups flour
- Combine all of the above ingredients in a large mixing bowl
- You can use a hand mixer, your KitchenAid Stand Mixer, or mix it by hand. Mix until you have a nice smooth dough.
- Pinch off small portions of the dough and roll into a 1-inch ball.
- Then set them into a mini muffin pan and gently flatten.
- We have a great little tool called the mini tart shaper to press the dough and form the cups
- Bake these at 350 degrees for about 12 to 15 minutes, and then set them aside to cool.
This dough is really easy to work with. This mini tart shaper makes it easy to form the cups. I always make the pastry cups first and while they cool I melt the caramel.
Now for the Filling:
- 1 lb. caramels, we use Kraft (don’t forget to unwrap the caramels)
- 1/2 cup of Carnation evaporated milk.
- Add the caramels and milk to a double boiler and melt over medium heat, or you could use your microwave.
- Add the caramel filling to the pastry cups and let cool.
At this point there are some options:
- You can sprinkle some coarse salt over the caramel to make a salted caramel cup.
- Top them off with some whipped cream
- You could also make a light frosting
This year I decided to change it up a bit. I made half salted caramel and
the other half I left plain so we could add some whipped cream on top later.
Or, just enjoy these plain. If you would like to make a frosting for them the
recipe is below.
What you need to make the Frosting:
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup of shortening
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Beat all of the above ingredients together until you have nice creamy frosting.
- Add the frosting using a pastry pouch.
This should yield about 48 cookies, and that’s enough for me. We need to make
a second batch for everybody else.
As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my recipe.
Wilton Perfect Results Premium Non-Stick Mini Muffin Pan & Mini Cupcake Pan, 24-Cavity, Steel
Fox Run Tart Tamper, Wood
