Sometimes when you’re in the mood to mess around in the kitchen, but don’t really want to try a new recipe, it’s fun to make some small tweaks to a recipe you already know and love. In this case, I used my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe and changed it slightly to replace the toffee, that I used in my last experiment, with some chopped caramel candies.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES WITH CARAMEL CHUNKS – makes about 5 dozen
- 2 +1/4 cups AP flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1.5 cups semi-sweet chips
- 1 cup chopped caramel candies
- 1 Tbsp sea salt – for garnish
Please refer to this link for the directions on making these bad boys, and to the steps below for the caramel candy addition.
To prepare the caramels, unwrap about 15 candies and, using a sharp knife, chop them into chunks. I cut each one into about 6 pieces, but it doesn’t really matter. I wanted them small enough to distribute evenly, but not so small that it became a pain. The caramels didn’t stick to the knife, but if you find that they do you can grease it beforehand with some shortening or butter.
Add the caramels into the dough at the same time as your chocolate chips and stir to incorporate evenly. One thing to look out for is the caramel stuck to itself, so try to break it up a bit for more even distribution.
Once you form the cookies on the sheet, sprinkle some sea salt on top to help contrast the super sweetness of the cookie. This is, of course, completely optional, but you might want to give it a go if you have sea salt on hand.
Bake per the directions in the link, and you’ll notice the caramel oozes out of the cookie in places. These came out superbly, what’s not to love? I’d recommend giving them a try when you’re tired of your regular ol’ chocolate chip cookies (and you happen to have half a bag of caramels leftover from some frosting you made).
YUM – love those pockets of caramel a-flowing
My god these look SERIOUSLY addictive! I love caramel added to ANYTHING. It sounds DIVINE with chocolate chip cookies (plus salt!)
Oh my goodness! When I saw “caramel”, I immediately thought that you were just going to put in toffee chips or something. But actual caramels! Yum!