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These caramel macchiato thumbprint cookies are the perfect holiday dessert! They taste just like the coffeehouse favorite but in cookie form. Sweet espresso sugar cookies topped with creamy caramel and drizzled with chocolate. You’ll love this easy cookie!

You’re going to love these quick and easy holiday cookie!
Not only is it semi-homemade but it’s PACKED full of coffee and caramel flavor.
Plus, you’ll love the creamy caramel center and the semi-sweet chocolate drizzle on top.
If you’re looking for a new addition to your Christmas cookie platter this is the perfect easy addition!
Do I have to make my own caramel for this recipe?
Not at all!
If you feel like making your own caramel by all means – go for it!
But if you want to keep things easy you can do a few things.
You can always easily melt some unwrapped soft caramels (usually found in the baking or candy section of the grocery store) with some butter to create a smooth creamy caramel. This is how it is written in the recipe.
If you can’t find soft caramels you can always buy a caramel ice cream topping and fill each little thumbprint with that.
Both work great!
Can I use premade sugar cookie dough?
While I think with some experimenting this could work the recipe actually uses the dry sugar cookie pouch mix.
It’s a great starting point to turn a basic sugar cookie into something extra special.
These mixes are pretty easy to find and are typically near the boxed cake mixes in the baking aisle of the grocery store.
What if I can’t find instant espresso?
If you can’t find instant espresso you could use instant coffee in place.
The instant espresso powder I typically us can be found on Amazon too!
Love these caramel macchiato thumbprint cookies?
Why not try a few of my other easy cookie recipes!
- Vanilla Bean Lemon Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Molasses Ginger Raisin Cookies
- Espresso Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
Caramel Macchiato Thumbprints
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- 1 1 lb 1.5 oz pouch sugar cookie mix
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 18 soft caramels, unwrapped
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, dissolve instant espresso powder in hot water.
- Stir in cookie mix, butter, flour, vanilla extract, and egg until very soft dough forms.
- Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls.
- On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart.
- Using thumb or handle of a wooden spoon, make an indentation in center of each cookie.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown.
- Cool 2 minutes, remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.
- In a small microwavable bowl, microwave caramels and milk uncovered on High 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring once, until caramels are melted.
- Spoon 1/2 teaspoon caramel into the indentation in each cookie.
- Cool 15 minutes.
- In another small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and coconut oil uncovered on high 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth.
- Drizzle chocolate over cookies.
- Let stand about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.












what a nice and simple and pretty little cookie.
These look delicious! I bet these are better than plain jam ones – I heart caramel.
These cookies sound amazing!
Those cookies looks great. I guess I need the recipe.
MImi
I love cookies like these. They are so pretty and they look delicious.
How lovely. You are such a talented baker 🙂
These look delicious!! I am planning on making some pre-christmas cookies tomorrow so am looking for fun new recipes and this might just be it!
This caramel makes me drool. Seriously.
thumbprint cookies are always so pretty, and these have the benefit of being particularly tasty too. terrific creation!
Very pretty! You’ve got a perfect little puddle of caramel in there 🙂 I’ve always wanted to order a caramel macchiato at a coffee shop, but I never really knew what it was and I’m not good at the whole fancy-coffee-ordering thing.