A Tasty Shortbread Recipe
I like to dip and dunk. This is a great behaviour to think about when the urge to create treats is upon us, especially when those treats fall into the no-bake category. The no-bake strategy is quite nice anytime, but extra nice around the holidays, as no-bakes tend to reduce stress and kitchen time. There are many ways to approach no-bake treats, but one method is simply taking a food item that is store bought and dipping or dunking it in something home prepared to gussie it up. The shortbread recipe below follows exactly this approach – dip store bought, all butter shortbread cookies into homemade caramel and chocolate sprinkles. EASY AND DELICIOUS! You might bemoan semi-homemade treats, but in this case, there are a lot of delicious pure butter shortbread cookies available so why not save the baking effort and just do the dipping.
That simple buttery goodness is what makes it great and pairing it with caramel makes it even better. With a dash of chocolatelyness, you have a threesome that makes a great no-bake treat. Yes, there are more complex recipes that put shortbread, caramel and chocolate together, but when things need to be done more quickly or when baking seems like a bit too much effort, this shortbread recipe does the trick.
The other beauty about this recipe is that the shape of the cookie doesn’t really matter. Shortbread sticks are nice, but if it is holiday time, holiday shaped cookies work just as well. These are perfect for a holiday party.
In this shortbread recipe, homemade caramel is used instead of purchased caramel cubes. To me, the taste of homemade caramel is worth the effort and tastes better than store bought. The downside is that the store bought shortbread cookies have to be dipped in a very hot caramel liquid. This takes some care, but is totally do-able. It has to be done fairly quickly because as the caramel cools, it just does not stick to the cookies quite as well.
To make this shortbread recipe even fancier, the caramel dipped cookies can be dipped in dark chocolate shavings or mini chocolate chips. The sprinkles do offer a nice texture and are pretty chocolatey.
Here is how I make Caramel Dipped Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Sprinkles.
- 24 purchased shortbread cookies (stick shape is good, but any shape will do.)
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup of cream
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/4 cup of light corn syrup
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla
- 1/2 cup of chocolate sprinkles
- Pour the chocolate sprinkles into a bowl.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper on top of a baking tray of flat surface.
- In a medium pot, stir together the sugar, brown sugar, milk, cream, light corn syrup, and vanilla. Add the butter and turn the heat to medium. Stir the mixture until the butter is melted.
- Insert a candy thermometer into the liquid and heat the mixture slowly until it reaches the soft ball stage - about 230F. This will take about 10-12 minutes.
- When the caramel reaches 230F remove it from the heat.
- Working quickly, carefully dip the cookies into the caramel so they are about half covered. Dip the caramel dipped end into the sprinkles. Lay the dipped cookies on the parchment paper to cool.
- Continue to dip until all the cookies are dipped. Let cool completely. Work as fast as possible as the caramel will have more trouble sticking to the cookie as it cools and thickens.
- Serve at room temperature.
- The cookies can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature or in the refrigerator. A piece of parchment can be placed between layers of cookies to prevent sticking.
- There may be extra caramel depending on the size of the cookies. Pour the extra caramel on to a piece of parchment and let cool.
I hope you enjoy.
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I’m sorry but a shortbread recipe where the FIRST ingredient is to go out and buy shortbread cookies makes NO sense.
I’m sorry, but not everyone is at home and available all day to do baking from scratch as we would love to do. Putting in a 40 + work day, a 2 hour commute, helping care for an elderly parent, and then taking care of your own home and family? There is precious, little time left over in the evening and weekend (ha sometimes there is no evening or weekend left if there is a hospital stay/visit and/or extra curricular child or adult items on the calendar. Oh, and time for grocery shopping and cleaning and laundry. So . . . .). Yes! Sometimes you have to start out with a store bought shortbread cookie and then decorate it yourself! I appreciate the idea in order to help me and the dozens like myself with this time saving yet still fun idea. So, thank you, Matthew!
Glad that you found this helpful Lynn! Many live busy lives, but we all need to find ways to enjoy! Good holiday you! Best Wishes, Matthew