We admittedly got a bit addicted to these Homemade Twix Shortbread Cookies. I personally grew up a fan of Twix, the caramel and milk chocolate cookie bars…and the peanut butter version. A variation on this recipe won “best new entrant” at the 2014 L.A. County Fair. We used the recipe Nellie won with as our inspiration for our own version.

We ended  up making these cookies a second way also, as creative thumbprint cookies.

They turned out tasty both ways, but the thumbprint version did a bit better holding the caramel center.

Baking Tips/Tricks:

The top tip for making these homemade Twix shortbread cookies is to make the indents deep in the cookie dough, as they spread out and puff up quite a bit when you bake them. We didn’t do this in the first version but wished we had.

For the caramel, be sure to use a low shallow pan inside a larger one when you are turning the sweetened condensed milk to caramel. While you can buy premade caramel or dulce de leche, this simple version is oh so yum and easy if you have the right pans. Another option for the caramel filling, is to boil the whole can of sweetened condensed milk, unopened for two hours. This has become my go-to way since it requires less attention to detail.

Once you taste the richness and perfect texture of these cookies, you will go crazy for them too. The recipe makes a pretty large batch…about 40 cookies. The quantity is enough, so plenty to share with others, if they last that long.

If you’re looking for more candy-bar inspired sweet treats, check out our Butterfinger blue ribbon winning cookies.

Enjoy!

-Cyndi