Salted Caramel Lemon Cookies Small Batch

These small batch cookies are incredible they are the perfect combination of salty, sweet & sour! The texture is chewy & soft with crunchy edges. Small batch cooking is such a great way to pack lot of flavor into a small delicious treat!

Extremely lemoney (is that a word?) which is the perfect level of freshness paired with the sweet & salty caramel bits. These are easy to do in the evenings during the week or a great Saturday/Sunday morning baking experience. Kids will love them but so will your co-workers!

I really wanted salted caramel instead of just caramel, after masses of trial & error this method was the easiest & most delicious way to get it. There are a lot of recipes that have you drizzle the caramel over the top of the cookie which is great! But I wanted to bite into the cookie and get the reward.

Tips:

• Read the directions for the salted caramel bits before you make them. Make sure you have your utensils & salt ready to go, this will make it a lot easier. Do not worry if your caramel sheet isn’t neat & tidy, mine only is for the purpose of looking good for the photo!

• The caramel will clump a little plus stretch when you are pulling the squares apart. It is ALL GOOD, it will taste the same and melts in the oven. We are just trying to distribute the salted caramel through the cookie, no need to be exact.

• Do not skip chilling the dough, it will spread too much if you do. The dough spreads even with the chill period but it’s the perfect amount. I’ve kept the minimum time as low as I can because I am super impatient!

I hope you enjoy these tasty little beauties x

Salted Caramel Lemon Cookies Small Batch

Makes approximately 7 - 9 cookies

Salted Caramel Bits

• 8 Werther’s Original caramels

• 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt

Lemon Cookie Dough

• 1/2 cup melted butter

• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 1 egg yolk

• 1/4 cup lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon lemon zest

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Line a medium microwave proof plate with baking paper. Cut an extra piece of baking paper the same size & set aside. Cut caramels into quarter pieces. Place on baking paper lined plate, spread out evenly.

2. Heat caramels in microwave for up to 1 minute in 15 second increments, checking at every stop point. Stop microwaving & pull out as soon as the caramels are very soft and a couple of them have started bubbling.

3. Very quickly place the baking sheet on a flat surface, sprinkle most the salt over the caramel. Cover with your extra sheet of baking paper and roll out the caramel with a rolling pin until 2 - 3 millimetres thick.

4. Remove top baking sheet, sprinkle with remaining salt. Press salt into the caramel sheet with your finger tips. Set aside to cool down.

5. Once cooled down, use a sharp knife to slice the caramel into squares. Pull apart with your fingers.

   Note: The caramel will be quite sticky, it’s okay if it clumps a little because its going to melt in the oven anyway! Make sure your knife isn’t warm from the dishwasher etc that will help with less sticking.

6. In a large bowl mix butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla essence. Add egg yolk, whisk in with a fork. Mix in lemon juice & zest.

7. Place flour & baking powder on top of the wet mixture, give it a light stir on top before completely folding into the wet mixture with a spatula.

8. Sprinkle in salted caramel bits, combine into the dough with spatula.

9. Portion cookie dough (I use a 1/4 cup cookie scoop), place in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

10. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 175 degrees C fan bake. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

11. Place cookies in the oven for approximately 13 - 15 minutes. The cookies will spread so keep that in mind when placing dough on the tray.

12. Remove from oven. Cool for 10 minutes on tray, transfer to cooling rack.

These are incredible & really easy once you get the hang of the caramel!

Tag #stripesandwillows x