Classic Salted Caramel Thumbprints

If there were a flavor that typified the 2010s, it was caramel sprinkled with only the best, flakiest salt.

The 2010s launched in economic turmoil. The recession of 2009 had left the economy in shambles, with newly graduated college students (who had been promised good jobs and living wages) unable to find work, and older folks (who had been planning to retire) watching their retirement plans tank. Americans who had bought property during the housing bubble of the 2000s found themselves underwater on their mortgages. And while big banks, the auto industry, and Wall Street all got government bailouts, conservative politicians pushed for minimal support for ordinary Americans in the name of reducing the federal debt. 

The decade was marked by opposing ideas on the growing economic inequality in the country. In 2010, the Supreme Court passed the Citizens United decision, which set precedent that money was considered speech and corporations were considered people. Occupy Wall Street launched in 2011 in protest of federal policies that favored wealthy corporations over ordinary people. Around the world, countries reacted to the economic recession by restricting public entitlements, cutting taxes, and restricting immigration.

While the decade was marred by mass shootings and terrorist attacks, it also marked a new social consciousness. In June, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state-level bans on gay marriage, making it legal across the country for the first time. The Black Lives Matter movement highlighted problems with institutional racism and police violence, and the Me, Too movement pushed for change around sexual violence and gender discrimination. 

Technology kept changing, too. Social media giants — namely Facebook, Twitter, and a brand-new platform called Instagram — connected more people globally than ever before. Smart phones became ubiquitous and more and more people cut the cord on cable television in favor of streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu all launched in the late 2000s). Pinterest and Instagram both launched in 2010, giving food bloggers a whole new platform. YouTube also came of age, and with Instagram and, at the end of the decade, TikTok, new career paths (think: content creator and influencer) were created.

Through this decade, building on the work of the foodie culture that had blossomed in the 2000s, people were asking themselves: How is social media changing how we eat? Not for the first time, recipes and flavors were going viral, and trends moved faster and faster as they were divorced from print media. Much of the popularity was based more on aesthetics and performance rather than the food itself. But despite the naysayers, people were actually cooking. Cooking videos, whether on The Food Network or YouTube or TikTok, were high-performing content. And while some trends came and went in an instant, others had surprising staying power.  

Enter: salted caramel. Although salted caramel as a flavor dates back as early as the 14th century in Brittany, France, the sweet-salty combo was back in a big way in the 2010s. The flavor seemed at once sophisticated and familiar, and the duality of sugar and salt lit up American tastebuds in the most satisfying way. 

Salted Caramel Thumbprint cookies were one of the easiest (and most delicious) ways to enjoy salted caramel, and this adaptation of a recipe from Bake from Scratch, a magazine that launched in 2015, is an excellent example. The combination of fine-crumbed shortbread and a sweet, sticky filling is hard to resist. Thumbprints were already a fixture on many holiday cookie plates, and substituting a salted caramel filling for the classic jam was an easy way to bring the holiday traditions in line with modern trends.   

Before you preheat the oven, gear up with these cookie-making essentials.

• The Sheet Pan Every Kitchn Editor Owns: This sturdy, won’t-ever-warp pan is great for cranking out a ton of picture-perfect sweets. Bonus: It comes in great colors, which makes baking even more fun.
• Our Tried-and-Tested Favorite Cooling Rack: We love these racks for their criss-cross design, which adds stability, makes sure your precious treats won’t slip though, and prevents the rack from wobbling or warping.
• The Little Spatula That Every Baker Needs: This thin-but-sturdy spatula is great for gently loosening your cookies from the pan and transferring them to the cooling rack. It’s particularly handy for moving small or delicate treats.