Almond Butter Thumbprints with Salted Caramel

My mom, my boyfriend, and I are really grateful to Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories for introducing us to these amazing cookies.  I know it's a bit hard to believe because this was a pretty big batch, but we ate them all between the three of us.  I was not interested in sharing with anyone else because they were too good.

Even though they're paleo cookies made with almond butter, they taste very similar to traditional peanut butter cookies, and the crumbly, buttery cookie and creamy salted caramel are an unbeatable team.

Salted Caramel Brownies (Gluten-free)

In case you missed it, you can make brownies (or blondies) from almond butter!  It's amazing--with just almond butter, honey, eggs, baking powder, and a few flavorings, you get a batter that actually bakes up into classic, fudgy, and delicious brownies.  I have Elana at Elana's Pantry to thank for that genius discovery.

And, as you may already know, every dessert gets better when you add salted caramel.  I've already made several salted caramel treats (the sauce, cupcakes, skillet brownies, and peach bars), and thought it was time for a gluten-free salted caramel brownie.  If you'd like to make this recipe paleo, you can make it with salted maple caramel instead of the regular salted caramel sauce.  Either way, these brownies will be amazing.

We had friends over for dinner last night, and used these brownies as a base for brownie sundaes (the ultimate dessert, in my opinion).  We started with the brownies, followed by a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a generous drizzle of warm salted caramel sauce, whipped cream, and a sprinkling of chocolate chips.  The sundaes were so distractingly good that no pictures were taken, so you'll just have to trust me and make some yourself!

Salted Maple Caramel Peach Bars (Gluten free, Paleo)

When I decided to try the paleo lifestyle, one of my main concerns was whether I would still be able to have salted caramel.  Salted caramel is an essential dessert flavor, one that I believe deserves a place right up there with chocolate and vanilla.  If there wasn't a way to make paleo salted caramel, I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle it.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Okay, this is it!  My best cupcake ever.  If you haven't jumped onto the salted caramel train yet, now is the time.  These are light and delicious vanilla cupcakes (my new favorite white cake recipe) filled with salted caramel sauce, topped with salted caramel buttercream, and sprinkled with a little more sea salt to finish.  They're amazing!  I recommend that you make them right now.  If you prefer, you can use chocolate cupcakes as the base--I tried that, too, and it's also amazing.

To make these, you'll need to some salted caramel sauce.  You might want to make a double recipe so you can stash some in the fridge or drizzle it over ice cream.  If you make a single recipe, it should be just enough to fill the cupcakes and make the frosting.

You'll also need cake flour.  I know, I also wish all-purpose flour could really be used for all purposes, but this time you're going to need the cake flour.  It makes the cupcakes really light and gives them a nice fine crumb.  If you don't have any cake flour but you do have cornstarch, use this post from Joy the Baker and turn some of your regular flour into cake flour.

I made these for an event we had at my Quaker meeting last night.  Every Wednesday in the summer, my meeting hosts a Wellesley Wednesday cookout, where everyone brings something to share and then someone presents on an interesting topic.  Well, yesterday, the interesting topic was THIS BLOG!  I had so much fun telling everyone all about A Calculated Whisk and how it all works--some of them did not even know what a blog was!

After the discussion, we made frosting together!  I showed everyone how to stuff a cupcake with salted caramel, and how to use sugar, butter, a little milk and salt, and flavorings to make a delicious small batch of buttercream.  I brought all kinds of fun things for people to flavor their frosting: grenadine, vanilla, vanilla beans, cinnamon, cocoa, almond extract, peppermint extract, salted caramel, and lime and lemon zest.  We had a blast!

Salted Caramel Cupcakes Recipe
Yield: 20 cupcakes
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients for the cupcakes (adapted from this recipe at Cookies & Cups):

1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), at room temperature, cut into chunks
4 eggs
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup salted caramel sauce, for filling

Ingredients for the frosting:

1 cup salted caramel sauce
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 and line your muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Use a mixer to beat the mixture on low speed for about a minute to make everything light and fluffy.

With the mixer still on low, add the butter a couple of pieces at a time.  Mix until it looks like coarse sand.  Slowly pour in the milk and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing all the while and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.  Raise the mixer speed to medium and beat for about two minutes until the batter is really smooth.

Fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are puffed and set, but not browned, and a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove to a rack to cool.  Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before you fill or frost them.

To fill the cupcakes, use a small paring knife to cut a small cone-shaped piece out of the top of the cupcake, making sure you don't cut too close to the bottom of the cupcake.  Spoon salted caramel in to fill the cone.

To make the frosting, mix all ingredients by hand or with a mixer until smooth.  Spread or pipe onto cooled, filled cupcakes.

If desired, drizzle some salted caramel and sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on top of the frosted cupcakes.

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You might also like:

Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes

Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Neufchatel Frosting

Margarita Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Skillet Brownies

So, this is some serious stuff right here.  Hardcore fudgy brownies with a slightly crunchy salted caramel crust on top.  And, you get to bake them in a skillet.  Yes!  This is going to happen.

First, make a batch of salted caramel sauce.  Try not to eat it all with a spoon.  Well, at least save one cup of it because that's how much you need to make these brownies.  And maybe save a little more so you can drizzle it on top of the brownie sundaes you'll inevitably make.  Yay!

Ingredients (from Two Peas & their Pod, serves 12 or more):

2 sticks butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped, or chocolate chips
1 cup salted caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a 12-inch ovenproof skillet.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the sugar and stir until the mixture smooths out.  Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.  Add the eggs and whisk until smooth.  Finally, add the flour and chocolate and stir just until combined.

Pour into the skillet.  Drizzle the salted caramel on top, and swirl it into the batter using a knife.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.  My brownies took way longer, but I think I may have used a ten-inch skillet.  Who knows?  The tape measure was nowhere to be found.  The bottom line is that the brownies were eventually ready and very much worth the wait.

Serve in wedges with ice cream (I chose Haagen Daazs Dulce de Leche and highly recommend it) and more salted caramel sauce drizzled on top.  You won't regret this!