Shall we dive into the debate of car-mull vs. care-a-mell? Personally, I’m a car-mull kind of gal. I’ve been mulling over these caramel kiss shortbread cookies for months and finally whipped up a batch. My inspiration were shortbread cookies that a sweet, old, English lady at my church in high school used to make for coffee hour. My caramel kiss shortbread cookies are a way to get the flavor of her fabulous cookies with a few shortcuts.

I love shortbread. It’s crumbly and sweet without being overly sweet. I have found that the butter really matters in shortbread. Butter is the primary ingredient, so you want to make sure that you use good quality butter. I generally buy store-brand unsalted butter on sale and freeze it until I need it. Take my advice and do not use butter that has been frozen. And take some more of my advice and splurge on nicer butter. You really can taste the difference. When baking the shortbread, you also want to err on the side of underbaking it. Shortbread is three ingredients, so it’s really easy to overcook it and dry it out. I would check at 13-14 minutes and leave them in for another few it they aren’t quite done.

Caramel kiss shortbread cookies

Author: Lisa

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Ingredients

Scale

2 sticks (1 cup) of softened butter
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
2 cups of flour
30 unwrapped caramel Hershey Kisses

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream together softened butter and powdered sugar. Stir in flour until soft dough forms. Continue mixing the dough until it is no longer crumbly and is a smooth, sticky dough.
Spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick spray. Form dough into 3/4 inch balls and place in muffin pan. Flatten down lightly with your fingers (you want a smooth top).
Bake for 14 – 16 minutes until set. Remove from pan. Cool for 5 minutes.
Push the pointy end of each caramel Kiss down into the top of the cookie, being careful not to split the cookie with the kiss. Cool for another 10-15 minutes before covering or transporting to allow the chocolate and caramel to set.

Enjoy!

Try some other Valentine’s Day recipes! Raspberry chocolate chip cake | Cherry cordial brownie bites | Chocolate chip cannoli cake | Cherry vanilla cupcakes