Salted Chocolate Chip Potato Chip Cookies

The worst part about a long weekend where the weather is fantastic is having to go back to work the next day. Unless, there are fresh baked cookies waiting for you. So despite being a little sunburned and not wanting to open my laptop … I figured I owe it to my coworkers to bake something this afternoon.

I made potato chip cookies earlier this year (pre-blog) and I had covered them in melted chocolate first and then put them in the cookie. But today I’m being lazy and decided that just adding more chocolate chips than normal to the batter would essentially yield the same result. I recommend using ridged potato chips (I used Wavy Lays). I don’t really have a scientific reason why, but maybe just because they tend to taste better.

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 2 cups mashed up ridged potato chips
• Coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Step 1: Cream together butter and sugars. Mix in vanilla extract and two eggs.

Step 2: Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt and mix into the wet ingredients.

Step 3: Add in chocolate chips.

Step 4: Mash up a few handfuls of ridged potato chips. It’s hard to say how many handfuls to use so I just measured the crushed amount afterwards. I put them in a ziplog bag and just smushed them with my hands until it equalled about 2 cups of potato chips. Add into the mixture.

Step 5: Using a melon scooper, scoop out even size balls of dough onto a sil-pat or parchment lined cookie sheet.

Step 6: Top with a dash of coarse sea salt. Bake for 11-13 minutes. Yes, new manicure color for the week.

And there you have it. Very salty and sweet synergy in cookie form. Before you throw out those half-eaten bags of potato chips from this weekend’s cookout, try to put them to good use in this recipe. And cross your fingers you make tomorrow’s cookie distro list!

 

Funfetti Cookies

These are the cookies that made me famous (within my circle of friends … in southern CT … in my high school days). Like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’ve been baking since I was younger because my mom always taught us never to go to someone’s house as a guest empty handed. Funfetti cookies are perfect because you can make them end-to-end in less than 30 minutes. No mixer required. Just a bowl, wooden spoon, and some old fashion elbow grease.

Funfetti cookies are always a big hit no matter what the occasion. They have the best of both worlds of funfetti cake and a cookie. They travel well. They are soft, delicious, and it’s like eating the top of a cupcake. Funfetti is that cake mix that has sprinkles in it. They usually come out with different colors around holiday times — Halloween, Springtime, Christmas, Fourth of July. I reccomend sticking with the vanilla frosting, but you can top these off with chocolate if that floats your boat. It was late tonight and I figured the coworkers deserved cookie Thursday before the long weekend kicks off.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Pillsbury Moist Supreme Funfetti Cake Mix
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 can vanilla frosting (the Pillsbury one already comes with a package of sprinkles on top

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Step 1: In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, vegetable oil and 2 eggs.

Step 2: Mix together (about 2 minutes or less) until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Dough will be sticky.

Step 3: Using a teaspoon or small cookie scoop, scoop out cookie dough and distribute on a sil-pat or parchment lined baking sheet.

Step 4: Dip a flat-bottomed glass in flour, shake off the excess, and use it to gently flatten the cookies. Be careful not to get whopping hunks of flour everywhere because it burns and smells icky.

Step 5: Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown. Be very careful not to overcook these, otherwise they just taste gross.

Step 6: Transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack or just another surface. Let them cool for a few minutes. Then using a butter knife or small spatula frost the tops of them.

Step 7: Sprinkle the frosted cookies while the frosting is still a little melty.

And that’s it! Less than 30 minutes and you’ll definitely impress any crowd. If you have kids, this is a great recipe to have them help out with since no mixer is involved, and there’s lot of fun to be had with frosting and sprinkles.

S’mores Cookie Bars

After the last s’more cookie fail, I figured I needed to give it another shot. I had a few people send me a link to this s’more cookie bar idea off of pinterest, so that was this week’s sunday night baking experiment. I didn’t actually read the recipe before I went grocery shopping tonight so I had to improvise a little bit, but I can happily say this time the s’mores were not an epic fail. I still am not a huge fan of fluff, so if I did this again, I think I would probably make the fluff from scratch, but I was not feeling adventurous tonight.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips (If you have it, it would be better to use 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Then mix in the egg and vanilla. I feel like these first steps look the same in every recipe, so I’m trying to find new ways to photograph it one handed.

Step 2: If you did not buy graham cracker crumbs, ground up about 4 whole graham crackers in a food processor until fine.

Step 3: In a separate bowl, mix together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder (woops, I used baking soda), and salt. I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight, just impatient and not reading directions. Mix that into the wet ingredients.

Step 4: Separate the dough into two halves.

Step 5: Press half of the dough in an even layer on the bottom of a greased 8×8 baking pan. And yes, that’s a new spring color manicure .

Step 6: Place chocolate bars over the dough. I didnt have chocolate bars, so I used chocolate chips.

Step 7: Spread a later of marshmallow fluff on top of the chocolate. This is not easy to spread, especially on tiny chocolate chips, so now I understand why I should have used chocolate bars. oh well.  I didnt have enough fluff either, but I just used what I had, which I think was a little over a cup.

Step 8: Place the remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff. This is also tricky, so i put small chunks of the dough flattened and then press them together.

Step 9: Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned. Let them cool completely before cutting into them.

Of course I was impatient and already cut into one. Definitely a success. I think it’s going to be a dash for cookie desk tomorrow because even cutting these small, I dont think it is going to make more than 20. I’m always up for a new cookie challenge, so keep the ideas coming and cross your fingers to make Monday’s cookie list this week!

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Listen, these cookies are awesome. Hands down. No beating around the bush. I am going to retire early knowing that I have made the most awesome cookies ever tonight. And while we’re on the topic of awesome. I’d like to dedicate these cookies to one of the most awesome people I know, my bestie, Pantyhose. Pantyhose is not a thing, she’s a person. And if you think sweet and salty is an unbelievable synergy, you haven’t experienced the synergy that has been Pantyhose and Baby July for the past five years. All you need to know about Pantyhose, is she is awesome. Like these cookies. Sweet, awesome, and filled with potassium. And she once decorated the most beautiful cupcake after winning it by jumping up and down and flailing her arms, and then tried to give it to a homeless man.

I had some bananas that were starting to get mushy, so I figured this would be a good time to do some experimenting. Also some of my coworkers require chocolate in all cookies I bake, so I figured banana and chocolate is a delicious combo so why not. Priorities.

Ingredients: 

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 6 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1 cups milk chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup peanut butter chips (optional, if you don’t have these, just add more chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 1: Melt butter and peanut butter together over low heat. Melt the butter first, then slowly stir in the peanut butter until it is creamy. Let this cool. If you are impatient like me, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. Also, I got to use my new tiny spatulas today which was exciting.

Step 2: Add in white and brown sugars.

Step 3: Add in vanilla and egg yolk. You’re supposed to leave the egg out so it’s room temperature, but honestly, I’m never that prepared in advance and these turned out fine with a cold yolk.

Step 4: Mash up 1 1/2 bananas. I used two because I like the extra banana flavor. I used a mash potato masher but you can use a fork, or your hands.

Step 5: Add in bananas and mix well.

Step 6: Add in flour, baking soda, and salt. As always I did not sift these. You should if you have patience, but I don’t.

Step 7: Add in chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.

Step 8: The dough was sticky for me, I think because I didn’t actually let the butter cool as much as I should have. So I put the dough in the freezer again for 5 minutes to firm up a bit. Then scoop using a small melon scooper onto a sil-pat or parchment lined cookie sheet.

Step 9: Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

These are seriously some of the most delicious cookies I have ever made. Perfect for breakfast with the bananas and peanut butter too. I am sure you could add in some oatmeal to this batter if it floats your boat. I’m in a good mood tonight so I’m thinking tomorrow morning some new coworkers can be added to the secret cookie distro list .. so fingers crossed kids.

Salted Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

I figured I would wrap up this weekend with an oldie but a goodie. I did a lot of driving this week back and forth to the hood to get my Mother’s Day on, so I was a little tired tonight for full blown experimenting, but I know my coworkers are coming to expect batches of cookies on Monday mornings. Toffee is delicious. Chocolate is delicious. Toffee and Chocolate in cookies? Totes delish. These cookies taste like a heath bar and are very easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups milk chocolate chips (or semi-sweet, whatever you prefer)
• 1 1/3 cups Heath toffee bits
• Coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Step 1: In the mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Step 2: Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the wet mixture.

Step 3: Add in the chocolate chips first, and mix quickly. Then add in the heath pieces. I just added the full bags of both because I don’t enjoy measuring.

 

Step 4: Using a teaspoon or a small melon scooper, scoop cookie dough onto a sil-pat or parchment lined baking sheet. Add a dash of coarse sea salt to the top of the cookies before putting them in the oven. And yes, I know what you are thinking. Manicure again? Don’t judge. This color is my new fave (http://www.amazon.com/OPI-Nail-Polish-Spicy-NLH43/dp/B0036US0JY) so you’ll be seeing a lot of it.

Step 5: Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes. When you take the cookies out of the oven, let them sit on the tray to firm up for about 5 minutes. The toffee might make it a little tricky to get them off the tray in one piece until they have cooled for a bit.

And there you have it, delicious toffee and chocolate synergy in cookie form. I’ve done a variation before where you roll the chocolate chip cookie dough into balls and then roll it in a plate of toffee, so that the toffee is on the outside of the cookie. I prefer the bits integrated in the dough but you can try it either way. This batch made almost 5 trays of cookies so there are going to be some very happy coworkers in the morning.

Peanut Butter Fluff Cookies

So I figured after last night’s S’more cookie fail, I needed to redeem myself. I really wanted to go back to the basics with a safe choice tonight like toffee chocolate chip or something I could make with my eyes closed, but I realized I was out of chocolate chips and this Boston weather has been gross so going outside tonight was not going to happen. Also, what’s a baking blog for if not to take some risks every now and then.

When stocking up on different ingredients for S’more cookies yesterday, I picked up a jar of marshmallow fluff. When I told my coworkers today that I’ve never had fluff before, most people looked at me like I was crazy and asked if I was even American. Let’s bring this back to my nut (allergic) brother. We weren’t big on peanut butter sandwiches growing up, hence a lack of fluff in my childhood. I’d like to think I still turned out normal enough.

I modified a few different recipes I saw for peanut butter and fluff cookies. The dough is really oily greasy, very similar to the peanut butter bacon cookies, but that’s pretty standard among peanut butter bases for cookies. A good thing about these cookies? Gluten Free! Which is perfect timing for mother’s day and my gluten free mom and number one blog fan (hi mom). Before we get into making these cookies, I think she deserves a little shout out for being a big influence on this blog. People often ask me how I got into baking and why I bake so often. My mom always taught us growing up not to show up to someone’s house empty handed. So the Shaw kids were known for always showing up with baked goods in hand. (Like Auntie Barbara says … never show up with your arms dangling). My basement was a popular hangout in high school and there were always tons of baked goods on hand (funfetti cookies anyone?). Even in Elementary School my mom was always a room mom or bringing baked goods to events. My brother and sister are known at their jobs for bringing in baked goods, so we were all brought up with the baking gene apparently. Which we got from my mom … not my dad … who cannot bake and only can cook hamburgers and spaghetti. So I think I speak for all my coworkers, past and present, when I say thanks Mom

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 egg
• 3-4 tbsp. Marshmallow Fluff
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips (optional … I might recommend leaving this step out)

Step 1: Mix together peanut butter and granulated sugar. A tip for measuring peanut butter – spray the measuring cup with nonstick spray first. That will help it not stick.

Step 2: Mix in baking soda and vanilla. Add in one egg and mix until it’s incorporated.

Step 3 (optional): I added in a half cup of Reeses peanut butter chips. I don’t know how much value these added to the cookie. The dough is so oily that the chips don’t stick that well. But they are still delicious so it’s up to you.

Step 4: Scoop out cookies into teaspoon size balls onto a sil-pat lined (or parchment lined) cookie sheet.

Step 5: Press the cookie flat. Put a dab (maybe 1/4 teaspoon? I dont really know tiny measurements, so just use your better judgement.

Step 6: Roll the cookie into a ball so that the fluff is in the middle. I don’t know if that’s actually possible to be honest. For me, the fluff was all over the place, so I just went with it.

Also your hands will get wicked sticky.

Step 7: Bake at 350 degrees for 9-10 minutes. When they come out of the oven, you will need to let them sit on the tray for at least 5 minutes to harden. I’m struggling with nicely getting these cookies off of the tray in one piece. Probably because I am very impatient. They taste good at least. Very peanut buttery.

SO hopefully I have redeemed myself with these. And I had my first taste of fluff. Honestly not a huge fan of fluff on it’s own, but in peanut butter cookie form it’s not too bad. This batch only made about 30 cookies, so cross your fingers to make the secret cookie distro list tomorrow!

S’more Cookie Experiment Fail

If every cookie experiment turned out well, it wouldn’t be called experimenting it could be called being perfect. Tonight’s S’more cookie experiment is what we like to call an epic fail.

I worked from home this afternoon because the lovely city of Boston has this new fun thing where it doesn’t think we need power to do our jobs … so after another mini-blackout in the office, I opted for sweatpants and internet on my couch to finish the workday. But being 5 feet from my kitchen all day, I couldn’t help but try to figure out what my next cookie experiment would be. So I went to the grocery store tonight and picked up a few random things: graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, regular marshmallows, flat marshmallows and baking soda. I couldn’t figure out if I was in a peanut butter mood or something very different. I had seen a bunch of S’more cookie variations on Pinterest earlier today. This one looked interesting (http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/giant-smores-cookies/) but I thought I would make my own variation …. not a good idea.

I’m not even going to post the full recipe because I wouldn’t recommend making it. I loosely went off of this recipe for chewy graham cookies as the base (http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2011/06/chewy-graham-cookies/). Good thing Tuesday night is trash tonight because these will not be making their way into the office tomorrow morning.  I have some tough critics there and these cookies just won’t cut it for them. Way too sugary sweet, and chewy sticky from the marshmallows.

They looked good going into the oven:

They didn’t look horrible coming out of the oven … but they were one hot sticky mess.

Getting them off of the tray onto the parchment to cool …. did not go well either. And while I think my coworkers wouldn’t mind cookies that aren’t formed perfectly … they were way too sugary and the graham added a weird flavor to the mixture that just wasn’t up to The Salted Cookie’s standards. You live you learn … on to the next one.

Twix Bar Cookies

I’ve been sent by a few friends a cookie challenge to make Twix cookie bars that they have seen pop up on Pinterest. I’m not really big into making bar cookies, aside from magic cookie bars. So I did a lot of recipe research today and combined a few different ideas to create these Twix cookies. I also did not have powdered sugar so I had to improvise the shortbread recipe a bit. All they really are is a shortbread cookie base, some softened caramel on top, and then a chocolate coating.

These cookies are a more-time consuming venture than I like, but that’s what Sunday experimenting is for. I was happily impressed with the finished product and I think my coworkers are in for a sugar-high double-cookie Monday.

Shortbread Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour

Caramel Ingredients:

• 1 cup (about 15 individually wrapped caramels)
• 4 tablespoons of heavy cream

Chocolate Coating:

• 2 cups milk chocolate chips (semi-sweet works if you have those instead)
• Coarse Sea Salt

Shortbread Instructions:

Step 1: Beat together butter and sugar. Add in vanilla and mix well.

Step 2: Mix in flour.

Step 3: Separate the dough into two even size amounts and roll them into logs. Then cover the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours. If you’re in a hurry, you can freeze them for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Once the dough is chilled, slice into even 1/4 inch size cookies. Bake at 375 for 7 to 9 minutes. Mine seemed to take about 10 minutes. You want the shortbread firm but not brown at the edges.

Step 5: When the cookies come out of the oven, transfer them off of the cookie sheet onto either a cooling rack or foil. You want to make a small indent in them so that the caramel has a place to settle later in the process. I used my pointer finger and pretty much burned it off, so you can do that or use the  back of a small teaspoon.

Step 6: Make the caramel filling. There are variations on how you can do this, but I went for the simplest possible. I had some Kraft caramel pieces left over, so I took about a cup (maybe 15 total) of unwrapped pieces and put in a small pan over medium to low heat.

Step 7: Add in 4 tablespoons of heavy cream. All of the other recipes called for more caramel and less cream, but I was just focused on getting the right smooth consistency, so this is what worked well for me. Make sure you are constantly stirring and the heat isnt too high. I switched from a wooden spoon to a fork to really integrate the cream into the caramel.

Step 8: Using a small spoon, spread a dollop of caramel into each indent of the cookie. After I used up all the caramel, I spread it around on the cookie to cover the entire amount of shortbread on top. You could also dip these directly in the caramel if you wanted, but I’m guessing you’d have some pretty burnt fingers early on and go back to this method.

Step 9: Once you’ve spread the caramel around every cookie, transfer them to a parchment lined sheet and put in the freezer for 20 minutes so that the cookies and caramel harden.

Step 10:  Take the cookies and spread over a cooling rack. Then melt 2 cups of milk chocolate chips in a pot over medium heat. Focus on constantly stirring otherwise the chocolate will easily burn and there is no way to save it.

DO NOT DO THIS: (try to multi-task with work and chocolate melting). This batch was a burnt chocolate fail.

DO THIS: Melt chocolate chips over low heat and keep stirring. Luckily I had extra chocolate chips on hand.

Step 11: Using a small spoon, spread a thin layer of chocolate on top of each cookie. This method lasted about 4 cookies before I got impatient and just started dipping the cookies into melted chocolate. My fingers are a little burnt but it was worth it. I had thought about covering the entire cookie in chocolate, but thought that might be too much. Also it was 11pm on a Sunday and I wanted to just finish these up in the simplest yet more delicious way possible.

I’m starting to notice I might be getting manicures too frequently, considering my nails are professionally polished a different color everytime they make an appearance in these blogs …. which is about twice a week.

Final step, sprinkle with a dash of coarse sea salt while the chocolate is still soft!

And there you have it. Delicious homemade Twix cookies, better than the candy bar! You can either eat these right away with the melted chocolate or put them in the fridge for an hour or so until the entire cookie hardens. I’ll let my trusty coworkers be the official judges of how these turned out tomorrow morning, but I think it’s safe to say I will have some pretty happy coworkers in the morning …. sugar crashing in the afternoon.

Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Crasin Cookies

I’d like to think these cookies were the start of my getting innovative with my baking. I first made these back in high school. I used to refer to my brother as the prodigal son when he was in college and I was still in high school, because anytime he came home for the holidays or break everyone had to stop what they were doing to make sure he had his favorite foods. My mom always made (and still makes for him) second-day-lasagna because he doesn’t like lasagna the first day it’s cooked. My brother’s favorite cookie was always oatmeal raisin. So one night before the prodigal son returned I was baking up some oatmeal raisin cookies for him when I realized I didn’t have any raisins. So I just threw in the bag of Crasins I had in the pantry and a cup of white chocolate chips.

These have always been a crowd pleaser at the holidays. Sometimes I mix it up and throw in a half cup of toasted coconut. My brother made these for his coworkers last week so I figured it was time I document this recipe for the blog.

Ingredients:

• 1/2  cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup granulated sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3  cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1  cup Crasins
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter and both sugars. I just realized I forgot to add the extra tablespoons of butter to my batch tonight, woops.

Step 2: Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well. Scrape the sides of the bowl before adding in dry ingredients.

Step 3: Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Anytime I use cinnamon in a recipe I take the extra time to sift the dry ingredients together.

Step 4: Add in uncooked oats.

Step 5: Add in Crasins. One regular size bag of crasins equals the 1 cup you need.

Step 6: Add in one cup of white chocolate chips. You can add milk chocolate if you want, but trust me it’s better with the white chocolate.

Step 7:  Using a small cookie scoop (finally got my replacement scoop  from amazon!), spoon out even-size balls of dough onto a parchment lined or sil-pat lined baking sheet. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes.

Mine came out a little on the dry side tonight because I left out some of the butter, but overall still a delicious success.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

For whatever reason I was really struggling to figure out what to bake tonight. For mid-week baking, I like to keep things simple and save the complex baking for Sundays. Also my baking cabinet is weak and needs some restocking and I’ve been promising a nut-free cookie next, so I was limited in more ways than one today.

Regardless, my coworkers would be more disappointed by a cookie-free Thursday than an experiment gone wrong, so I figured I would try out these new carmel bits my mom threw in my bag a few weekends ago from her King Arthur Flour purchase (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/caramel-bits-16-oz). I figured I would try something simple to start, so I added the caramel bits to my classic salted chocolate chip cookie.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 .5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups of carmel bits (or carmels chopped in small pieces about the size of a chocolate chip)
• Coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Step 1: In the mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well. A little baking action shot below.

Step 2: Add in flour, baking soda, and salt. I have a ghetto way of sifting these together with the back of a wooden spoon once I dump them all in the mixer, but if you have time you should actually sift these ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Step 3: Add in two and a half cups of chocolate chips.

Step 4: Add in one and a half cups of the caramel bits. If you don’t have these (which you most likely don’t) you can use regular cararmels like the Kraft ones pictured below, just make sure you chop them up pretty coarsely into small even-size bits.

Step 5: Scoop even size balls of dough onto a parchment lined or sil-pat lined cookie sheet. Normally I go with the melon-scooper size. But Amazon prime failed me this week and I still have not gotten my new cookie scoop after Sundays debacle …. so I went with the larger ice cream scoop I had. It still made 4 trays of 8 large cookies.

Step 6: Top with a dash of coarse sea salt.

Step 7: Bake for 12-14 minutes. If you make smaller size cookies, you might want to go with 10-12 minutes. Because of the sticky caramel you will need to let these sit on the tray for 3-5 minutes after them come out of the oven to cool. I smushed a few trying to lift them off the sheet.

These cookies are salty, caramely, and delicious hot out of the oven. I have a feeling we might run into the same issue as with the rolo-stuffed cookies I made a few months back where once they cool they have a totally different (harder) consistency. So my reccomendation is for eating these cookies the next day, microwave these for 10-15 seconds before enjoying to get the gooey melty goodness.

Now I understand that by using the big cookie scoop instead of the melon scooper tonight means less cookies … which I claimed I had learned my lesson last week to not bring limited numbers of cookies to my coworkers.I guess it will just be a real-life Hunger Games in the office tomorrow … only the strong and smart secure their cookies early! And getting on the secret cookie distro list is like getting a gift from sponsors  Alright enough with the nerd references … enjoy these sweet and salty treats!