My sister Katie is visiting from New Brunswick for a couple of weeks, and she has a serious sweet tooth. Â Whenever she comes, I make sure to have fresh-baked goodies for her (and she does the same for me when I visit home…).
I made a big batch of these chocolate chunk caramel cookies just as she arrived, so that they’d be fresh from the oven and the apartment would smell like butter and vanilla (you know, the language of love).
I’ve written about using soft caramels in cookies before with these really yummy apple caramel cookies. Â They can be a bit tedious to unwrap, but so worth it.
Be sure to use fresh, soft candies (give ’em a squeeze in their wrappers) or you’ll get a bit of a jaw workout with the finished product – which is fine, actually, it takes you longer to eat one, and is especially delicious with a steaming cup of tea for dunking.
In other news, I’m having a baby in 3 weeks. Â THREE. WEEKS. I need to use lamaze breathing every time that thought crosses my mind. Â HOO HOO HEE. Â HOO HOO HEE.
I’m so excited to meet the little monkey who’s been squeezing my bladder and toe-jabbing my ribcage, but as the date approaches (the actual date – I’m having a planned cesarian after an emergency one last time) the excitement is maybe a teensy bit overshadowed by nerves and anxiety.
The good news for you is that when I’m anxious, I stress bake. Â So there will be more goodies where these came from!
Ps. My sister gets credit for those perfect teeth-marks – I think she should drop engineering and be a professional cookie biter, don’t you think?
Chewy Chocolate Caramel Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 ¼ cups 14.6 oz all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 12 oz chopped dark chocolate or 2 cups chocolate chips
- 30 soft caramels quartered
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a standing mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes (it will turn a shade lighter in colour), pausing occasionally to scrape down sides and bottom of mixer bowl. Beat in eggs, then vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Â With mixer speed on low, gradually add to butter mixture, beating until just incorporated. Â Remove bowl from stand and stir in chocolate and caramels (reserve a handful of each for topping cookies as a nice finish).
- Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on baking sheets. (Press a chunk of chocolate and caramel into top of each cookie ball, if you reserved some.) Bake for about 8 minutes, until golden but slightly undercooked. Slide parchment paper onto wire racks to cool completely. It's important to cool the cookies on top of the parchment paper - if you transfer the cookies directly to racks, the caramel will stick to the metal and/or drip through.
