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A salted caramel and pretzel cookie topped with flaked sea salt and pieces of pretzel.
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5 / 4 votes

Salted Caramel and Pretzel Cookies

These salted caramel and pretzel cookies, made with buttery sugar cookie dough, pretzel pieces, and dulce de leche, have it all. Sweet, salty, chewy, and crunchy. Sorta like everything cookies. Need we say more?
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time2 hours
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 30 cookies
Calories: 73

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups roughly broken skinny pretzel sticks
  • 2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup store-bought or homemade dulce de leche or thick caramel sauce*
  • Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
US - Metric

Instructions

  • Toss 1/4 cup whole or broken pretzels in a resealable plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them into coarse crumbs.
  • In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, honey, vanilla, and salt. Add it to the butter mixture and beat until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and coarse pretzel crumbs, and beat just until combined.
  • Dump the remaining broken pretzels in the resealable plastic bag and coarsely crush with the rolling pin. Spread the pretzel crumbs on a plate or rimmed baking sheet.
  • Drop tablespoonfuls of dough on the pretzel crumbs and roll the dough into balls, pressing so the pretzels adhere. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 325˚F (163°C) and position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Arrange the cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Make a deep indentation in the center of each with your thumb. Bake, swapping the positions of the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven, re-indent with the back of a teaspoon, if necessary. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes and then transfer them to racks to cool completely.
  • Fill each indentation with a spoonful of dulce de leche or caramel sauce and sprinkle with sea salt. Then go ahead and indulge. (These are best devoured the day they're baked, as it's a little tricky to keep the leftovers without the pretzels going soggy and the gooey stuff sticking to whatever you cover the cookies with, although honestly, somehow we don't think leftovers will be an issue.)

Notes

What You Need To Know About The Difference Between Dulce De Leche And Caramel

What, you may be pondering, is the difference between dulce de leche and caramel sauce? As the author of this salted caramel and pretzel cookies recipe explains, dulce de leche is like caramel sauce but thicker and richer because it’s made solely with sweetened condensed milk that’s slowly, slowly simmered down until a thickened, caramelized goo, whereas caramel sauce is made with only sugar. (Well, okay, some caramel sauces include other ingredients, including butter and cream, to make the technique of cooking it a little less tricky and the consuming of it all the more indulgent.) They’re each lovely and similar. Though different.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 73kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 88mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g