Every Christmas I like to bake cookies for Santa. Instead of the classic Christmas cookies decorated with icing, I decided to get a little creative this year.

With a basic cookie recipe you can do anything you want! I chose to add some chocolate on top and a homemade caramel to create a soft and delicious center. These cookies are so versatile that you could use jam in the center or skip the filling and just put chocolate on top.

Using a very fine sugar helps it to combine well with the butter, and the cream cheese gives it a nice smooth flavor. I promise you these will be a guaranteed hit, so get creative and enjoy them!

Chocolate drizzle.

Homemade caramel.

 

 

Butter cookies

Buttery cookies with chocolate drizzle and caramel filling
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time10 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: cookies
Keyword: buttercookies, caramelcookies, cookies
Author: Ester van Boesschoten

Ingredients

Cookies

  • 1 1/4 Cup unbleached all purpose four
  • 6 Tablespoon fine sugar *
  • 1/8 Teaspoon salt
  • 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 Tablesppon cream cheese room temperature
  • 8 Tablespoon unsalted butter softened but still cool, cut in 8 pieces

chocolate drizzle

  • 2 Oz semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 Teaspoon ghee or butter

caramel filling; homemade or storebought.

Instructions

Cookies

  • In an electric mixer bowl combine the flour, sugar and salt on low speed until combined.
  • With the mixer on low, add one piece of butter at a time until combined. Add in vanilla and cream cheese. Mix on low until the dough begins to form large clumps.
  • Knead the dough by hand in the bowl for 3 minutes.
  • Turn the dough out onto the countertop and divide into 2 disks and wrap it with cling wrap. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  • Remove from fridge and cling wrap. Roll the dough out in between 2 pieces of parchment paper until it is around 1/8-1/4 inch thick.
  • Let it rest in the fridge for another 10 minutes.
  • After it has chilled, cut out your cookie shapes. For half of the cookies cut out a small hole in the center with a cookie cutter. Put them on baking sheet at least 1 1/2 inch apart. Put them back in the fridge for 10 minutes to rest.
  • Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit and adjust your rack to the top position.
  • Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, rotating the tray halfway until they are golden brown.
  • Cool the cookies on a cooling rack.

Chocolate Drizzle

  • In a bowl au bain-marie (double boiler) melt the butter and chocolate.
  • Drizzle the chocolate over the cookies using a spoon.

Cookie Assembly

  • Add approximately one teaspoon of caramel to the bottom part of the cookies (without hole). Gently place the top part (with hole) on top of the caramel. Place cookies on a tray and put in the fridge to firm.

Notes

*if you don’t have really fine sugar you can put cane sugar in a foodprocessor to create fine sugar
*inspired by: America’s test kitchen