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
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two rimless baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
- With speed on low, incorporate flour, baking soda and salt. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in caramels and apples.
- Drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until golden but still slightly underdone.
- Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Last Updated on October 10, 2012 by Jennifer Pallian BSc, RD