Chewy Caramel Chocolate Cookies!

It is week 2 of 10 in my Christmas cookie adventure. This week has been a very busy one for baking! I posted a picture of my Biscotti to my facebook page last week and my Aunt Tink left a comment on it telling me how delicious they were, and how she hoped that they were fat free because she had been eating the package of them that I gave her all day. My Aunt Barb responded to that asking where she could find some of these "fat free Biscotti!" I then remade the Biscotti on Monday and sent some out to her and the rest of my family that lives in Colorado. Hopefully they traveled well and she is enjoying the treat.

This week's cookie was inspired by a cookie that I saw while surfing around the Internet. The cookie called for a chocolate dough wrapped around a Rolo. They reminded me of these brownie bites that my Aunt Cindy makes. She makes her favorite brownie batter and bakes it up in mini muffin pans and then immediately out of the oven she presses in either Rolos or Reese's peanut butter cups. They are delicious and all of my cousins love them.

I ran with the concept and I made my own caramels this week (see the previous post! They were amazing!) I made a chocolate cookie dough and wrapped the caramel in it, they were really delicious!

Chocolate Cookies with Chewy Caramel Centers (That is a very alliterative cookie name!!)
Adapted from: Two Peas and Their Pod - I love this blog!

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
Caramels (home made preferably!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together butter and both types of sugar in a stand mixer. Once it is light and fluffy add in the eggs one at a time. Then mix in the vanilla extract. Add in cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, mix until well combined. Mix in the flour and mix until smooth-ish. Some lumps are ok, they will bake out.

Take a tablespoon or so of dough and wrap it around the caramel. Place it on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with silicone mats - it helped when some of the caramel oozed out!)  Bake for 11-13 minutes.

**Let cool completely before eating - while they are still warm the caramel is kind of dissolved into the dough, but once cooled there is a chewy caramel consistency in the center. Delicious!!**

Cookie Spectacular.

I truly love the holiday season. Everything about it makes me happy. It is the time of year when I get to spend copious amounts of time with my family, bake obscene amounts of cookies, and finish the day with a wonderfully delicious Harpoon Winter Warmer. I really love that beer, I look forward to it all year long.

For my first of the many holiday cookie posts to come, I'm going to highlight chocolate chip cookies. This recipe was adapted from all recipes. This dough is by far the best cookie dough any of us have ever had.

Chocolate chip cookies - Makes 3 Dozen (we got closer to 5 dozen worth of dough, but we actually produced 4 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter, softened (I like to leave my butter out overnight if I know I'll be baking the next day)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package jell-o brand vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• In a large bowl cream together butter and both sugars. Blend in instant pudding mix. Add eggs and vanilla extract.
• Mix in flour and baking soda.
• Once blended stir in chocolate chips.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are slightly browned.