•  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 2 cookie trays by lining them with parchment paper.

Make the Cookie Dough:

• In the bowl of a mixer, add the butter and sugar. Using the paddle attachment blend together until combined, then while the mixer is still running add in one egg at a time.
• Add the vanilla, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar, mix well.
• Mix in the flour, and mix until everything is combined and a dough has formed.
• In a small bowl mix together the ingredients for the sugar coating.

Shape the Cookies:

• Scoop a large scoop of dough into the palm of your hand. Roll the dough to create a ball that is roughly 2 inches in size.
• Roll the ball of dough into the sugar coating then place onto the prepared cookie tray.
• Continue this process until all of the dough has been used. Place no more than 4 to 6 cookies on each tray, keeping plenty of space between each cookie.
• Gently press each ball down with flat fingers so they are about ½ the height as they were. Sprinkle a little extra of the sugarcoating onto the flattened cookies.

Bake the Cookies:

• Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes. If you're baking 2 trays and the same time, be sure to rotate the trays halfway through.
• Once the cookies have finished baking, remove from the oven. While the cookies are still warm, but not too hot to burn you, use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut the center of the cookies out.
• Let the cookies cool completely.
• When the cookies have cooled, place all of the cookies close together on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper. Have a second empty cookie tray lined with parchment paper set aside as well.

Make the Caramel:

• Put all of the caramel ingredients, except for the vanilla, into a medium sized pot (you want enough space in the pot for the caramel to bubble up comfortably)
• Heat the caramel over medium low heat, stirring frequently. Staying on medium low heat bring the caramel to a boil, once boiling only stir occasionally. Once the caramel has reached 242 degrees F, it remove from heat and immediately stir in the vanilla.
• Working quickly, but carefully, fill each heart space with the caramel. If you have left over caramel, pour onto the second cookie tray that you lined with parchment paper.
• Let the caramel in the cookies cool for a few minutes then sprinkle the tops with flake salt.
• Let the cookies cool completely before serving.