Disclaimer: If you are a participator in my mom’s annual cookie exchange and you’d like to read this post, you may NOT bake these cookies for that event. Because I might, and that would be mean, you competitive ladies! I will post a series of weekend recipes that may or may not be cookie exchange contenders, and I might let you know closer to the event if there are any I’ve ruled out. We’ll see…

These cookies were AWESOME. I found them while stumbling on the Baking Junkie’s website. I didn’t have milk to make the suggested glaze, and they still rocked. They were a bit of a pain to make, because dicing up squares of caramel is hard and the caramel melts everywhere while baking making them difficult to lift off the foil, but it was well worth it. The caramel is what makes them perfect. I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to use a caramel sauce next time, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be quite the same deliciousness.

To begin, turn this

into this:

And these

into these:

And some graham crackers into this:

Tip: For cutting up the caramels, try putting your knife into a glass of hot water between each caramel. Cleans off the goo and heats up the knife, making it easier to push through.

Next, cream the butter and sugars.

Add the eggs and vanilla.

Combine the flour, graham crackers, baking powder, and salt, and gradually add the dry ingredients to the mixture.

Now add the diced caramels and apples.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or if you don’t have any and don’t want to go to the store, line with foil and spray with cooking spray) and spoon balls of dough onto the sheet.

Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes. Unfortunately, the caramel will cause them to do this, but let them cool for a bit then brake the melted pieces off.

Perfect!

Recipe!


Caramel Apple Pie Cookies
From Baking Junkie

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cup flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
20 caramels
1 medium apple

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl combine butter and sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to liquid ingredients and mix well. Cut each caramel in 6 smaller pieces and add to dough. Peel, core, and chop apple into smaller pieces and add to dough. Form dough into small balls and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake approximately 12 minutes, or until tops of cookies are light golden brown. Allow to cool completely before removing from pans.