Salted Caramel Sugar Cookies | While He Was Napping

We were standing around the kitchen late one night after Mr Napping and I had been at (different) meetings all evening when Mr Napping said to me, “Are you going to the baptism on Saturday?” “Which one?” I replied. After about five minutes, he got to what he really was telling me, “I’m supposed to take cookies.” Aha! “I’ll just take that package of mint cookies in the cupboard,” he quickly added. Uh, no. Those are MY mint cookies, thank you very much. And you just don’t take a package of cookies to a baptism.

SALTED CARAMEL SUGAR COOKIES

Cookies-
Ingredients:

– 4 eggs

– 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract (or other extract – orange, lemon, almond)

– 1/2 cup Sour Cream

– 1 cup Shortening

– 1 1/2 cups Sugar

– 1/2 tsp Salt

– 1 tsp Baking Soda

– 4 1/2 cups Flour

Directions:

– Preheat oven to 350F.

– Mix eggs, vanilla, sour cream and shortening in a large bowl.

– Add sugar, salt, and soda. Mix.

– Add flour and mix until well combined and dough is formed.

– Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place two inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

– Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until cookies no longer appear wet.

– Let cookies cool for 1-2 minutes and then remove and place on cooling racks.

– Top with cream cheese frosting recipe below.

Frosting-

Ingredients:

– 4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
– 1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
– 1/4 cup Butter, softened
– 1 1/2 teaspoons milk

– 2 Tablespoons (yes, TABLEspoons) Caramel Flavoring Extract (you can always start with less and add more if you want)
– Sea Salt for garnishing

Directions:
– Mix the cream cheese, sugar, butter and milk with an electric mixer until all ingredients are well combined.
– Add flavoring (a teaspoon at a time, if you wish) and mix until it’s well combined.
– Frost cookies and garnish with a pinch or two of sea salt on each cookie.

Yields approximately 4 dozen cookies.