Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

Photo from Taste of Home

Always on the lookout for new Christmas cookie recipes to try, I came upon this one in a back December issue of Country magazine: Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints.  The recipe looks fairly simple although there are several steps to it:  baking cookies; making a filling and filling the indentations; then melting chocolate and adding a chocolate drizzle.  (I'm getting hungry just writing this!)  I do have several other recipes that incorporate the same number of steps, and it's not difficult work, but you just can't be in a hurry.

I think this would be a perfect cookie for a cookie exchange, as it is quite different and looks delicious.  I'm thinking too that eliminating the drizzle and sprinkling the caramel with coarse salt instead might make a nice salted caramel variation.  Definitely a want-to-try cookie for this season.  Too bad it's too hot to bake or I might fire up the oven right now!