Apple Caramel Cookies

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Since last week, with the appearance of this year’s assortment of violently orange Halloween decorations, I’ve had a massive hankering for those old-school tootsie roll apple caramel pops. Remember those? They were my favourite trick-or-treating score, however few and far between. I haven’t seen them in stores for years, and Amazon has them but sadly won’t ship to Canada. I mean, c’mon Amazon! I’m between Washington and Alaska, it’s really not out of your way…

Anyway, I’ve succumbed to the disappointment and I found a better way to scratch that caramel-apple itch. In COOKIES!

These cookies are golden brown and slightly crisp at the edges, soft in the centre, with lots of chewy caramel and slightly crunchy apple. I left the skin on my apple for some colour. Granny smith was my fruit of choice, but you could use whatever you’ve got on hand – except the super soft varities, such as MacIntosh.

The cookies will soften quite a bit after a day, due to the moisture in the apples, but they’re still scrumptious – just more along the lines of a hermit cookie texture.

If I’ve inspired a yearning for caramel apples, and you want the real chewy-sweet-crunchy-tart deal, you need to try my Homemade Caramel Apples recipe!

Also… for hard-core chocolate lovers… these morsels are incredible with chunks of dark chocolate in lieu of apple, and sprinkled with flaked sea salt before baking…

Ingredients

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup quartered soft caramels
• 1 cup diced apple

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two rimless baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. With speed on low, incorporate flour, baking soda and salt. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in caramels and apples.
4. Drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until golden but still slightly underdone.
5. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.