I'm Addicted To Baking

I'm currently saving up for a new camera. My current camera (I'm embarassed to say it's just a point and shoot), was accidentally left at my parent's house over the holidays. I'm currently stuck with my Andoid phone camera, which I believe is a whopping 5 Megapixel camera. That was painful to type.

In honor of my really sad cameras, I've decided that this post will be brief and about my new addition to baking!

Last night I baked thick coconut cookies topped with fresh caramel cream and a little sea salt. I found the original recipe in Martha Stewart Living and I tweaked it a little. SOOO delish! I snuck down at midnight for another one before bed. Recipe is below.

Coconut Thumbprints with Salted Caramel

Yield: about 54 cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 eggs, divided
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
• 44 small caramel candies (12 ounces), unwrapped
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream
• sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Beat together butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla and 2 of the eggs.
3. With mixer on low, gradually add flour and the 1/2 teaspoon salt, and beat to combine.
4. Press dough together in plastic wrap, then roll into 1 1/4-inch balls. Beat the 2 remaining eggs in a small bowl. Dip each ball in the beaten egg and roll in coconut. Place balls on parchment-lined baking sheets, and press an indentation into each with your thumb.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove sheets from oven, and re-press indentations. Bake cookies until golden, 9 to 10 minutes more. Let cool on wire racks. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. Place caramels and heavy cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the caramels are melted and mixture is smooth, 4 to 6 minutes. Spoon into indentations in cookies, and sprinkle with sea salt. Rewarm caramel if it hardens before all cookies are filled.

I'm also in love with the blog Not Without Salt. I plan on using a lot of recipes from that site and I'll be happy to review them for you here. The only problem is that I need a good camera to take photos of my creations and recipes. So here's hoping that my next post includes shots taken with my new camera!