Cherry Caramel Sea Salt Cookies

Ingredients

• Butter unsalted 
• Cream Cheese
• Powdered sugar
• Egg
• Vanilla Extract
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Sea Salt
• Dried Regular Cherries
• Caramel Chips
• Super fine sugar

Create the Caramel Sea Salt Chip

I normally use Diamond Kosher Salt for all of my baking; it brings out the flavors in my cookies and spreads evenly throughout my dry ingredients simply by using a whisk. I also use this salt for my everyday cooking.

Diamond Kosher Salt is made of sodium chloride without other additives. They say that because of that fact, it has a cleaner taste than other salts that contain minerals. But I am trying to recreate the Caramel Sea Salt taste to replace the Hershey's Caramel Sea Salt chips they discontinued.

I could not find caramel sea salt chips from other venders, so I could at least create the taste by adding caramel chips and sea salt. I bought Lieber's Caramel Chips from Amazon and found Field Day Fine Sea Salt at my grocery store or Fruitful Yield online. Just know that the caramel chips are small, but I like that they added more chips to my cookies.

Honestly, my husband loves these cookies and didn't notice I had combined flavors to have the same taste. I found the solution to my problem. I tried regular caramel bits and cut-up caramel squares, but they melt and stick to the cooling rack after baking. So, unless I find another solution, I will use this as a replacement.

Mixing the Cherry and Caramel Cookies

These are great Saturday morning cookies to make for the family. It only takes about an hour and a half from start to finish. So easy and good!

I begin by weighing out the powdered sugar and setting it aside. You can measure, but weighing out my dry ingredients is the best way to make consistent cookies. Next, weigh the flour and add the baking powder and sea salt. Run a whisk through to blend.

Add the butter and cream cheese to a mixer bowl and blend on medium speed for a couple of minutes.

Scrape the bowl down and gradually add the powdered on a low mixer speed until it is incorporated then turn the mixer to a medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

Next, add the egg and the vanilla extract and blend that through the cookie dough. The next thing is to scrape down the bowl and on a low speed gradually add the flour mixture. Don't mix for too long just until the flour is absorbed.

Over-mixing the flour will make your cookies dry and crumbly. If you still have some flour grumbles at the bottom of your mixer bowl, grab a good spatula to bring it together.

Finally, add the caramel chips and the dried cherries to the batter and mix for 30 seconds or less. You don't want to break up the cherries, so use the spatula to ensure they are evenly distributed.

Cover loosely and chill for 1 hour.

Baking Sugar Coated Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C).

First, I get set up for rolling the cookie balls with sugar. I am using a super fine sugar which you can use a couple of types. I am using a superfine sugar by Dominio. But I also like Caster Sugar by India Tree. It is a little more in price but either of these will work well.

So my setup is a cookie sheet pan lined with parchment paper, a cookie scoop, and a plate with the superfine sugar for rolling cookie balls.

I use a medium scoop, or you can use a spoon. The goal is to make the same size cookies so they bake evenly. So scoop out a ball and roll it in your hands, then roll it in the sugar.

I take 2 or 3 fingers and gently press down on the tops of the cookie balls so they are not so round. It also helps them from rolling when you move the sheet pan to the oven.

Bake at 350°F (175°C or 180°C) for 11 to 13 minutes. Move to a cooling rack after you take them from the oven.

Enjoy!

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