Soft, classic chocolate thumbprint cookies with salted caramel centers, drizzled with melted dark chocolate and chopped hazelnuts.

Feels like I’ve been baking all month. Not complaining. I actually LOVE to bake more than cook.

I don’t do it often because guess what I end up having for breakfast every morning? You guessed it. Cookies! Not that I had any of these salted caramel chocolate thumbprint cookies for breakfast this week…

I totally did.

They are so rich and chewy. Omg. Heaven. These cookies were actually inspired by a very old Jello cookbook I had as a kid. I think I was like 9 or 10 years old when I got that book. Probably from the scholastic book fair. That super thin paper order form that you would fill out and then have to wait a million years to receive your books. So 90’s.

Anyways, the recipe is the book was made with instant Jello chocolate pudding.

Never fear, I didn’t use Jello pudding for these cookies. These are made with real cocoa and melted dark chocolate and hazelnuts and well, they are what dreams are made of. My dreams, anyway. Let’s talk about how to make these beauties!

How To Make Salted Caramel Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Mix the wet and dry ingredients. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the egg, heavy cream, 3 ounces melted dark chocolate, and vanilla until combined. Add flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix until just combined.
Make cookie balls. Form 1” balls using a cookie scoop. I use this cookie scoop to make the dough balls so each cookie is the same size. Once I scoop, I roll them by hand to make a smooth ball. This helps keep them from cracking while in the oven. Place them about 1” apart on the baking sheet.
Bake the chocolate thumbprint cookies. Bake for 10 minutes at 350ºF. Remove the cookies from the oven and gently press centers again with the back of a teaspoon to maintain the thumbprint. Let cool.
Make thumbprints on the cookies. Once they were out of the oven, I used the back of a teaspoon or your thumb, gently press in the center of each cookie to make an indentation. This is where the salted caramel will be.
Add the salted caramel. Once thumbprint cookies have cooled, spoon salted caramel into the center of every cookie. Make sure not to overflow the thumbprint with caramel.
Add the finishing touches. Drizzle the cookies with the remaining melted dark chocolate then top with chopped hazelnuts. Let cookies sit for about 15 minutes before serving.

How do I store chocolate thumbprint cookies?

Once cooled, you can store the cookies in an airtight container and keep at room temperature for 3 days and in the fridge for 1 week.

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