Cooking Corner: Caramel Apple Cookies

When most of us would finish trick-or-treating, we would sprawl our candy out all over the floor and eat as much as we could until we became sick or our parents took it away from us.

A lot of my friends and I would organize our candy according to its type, which would entail mounding suckers, candy bars and fruity candy in their respective piles.

Every year there seemed to be an abundance of caramel apple suckers, and the suckers with the most caramel were to be treasured.

In order to bring back that nostalgic taste of your trick-or-treat candy after Halloween, these cookies taste exactly like those caramel apple suckers.

This recipe was found and pinned on our Pinterest page from the blog called “Scrambled Henfruit.” Although we try to adapt the recipes we pin to our Pinterest page, we found that it was impossible to make these cookies any better, so we simply did not alter this recipe in any way.

However, I advise you to not eat as many as these as you can, mostly because your parents are not there to snatch your goodies away and therefore you may possibly become sick.

Here are the steps for baking caramel apple cookies that may remind you of your memorable trick-or-treating days.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place parchment paper on cookie sheets. Unwrap caramels.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and the entire box of the apple cider drink mix powder in a large bowl on medium to high speed until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture in three increments until everything is incorporated. Scrape down sides of bowl if necessary.

Place the dough in the refrigerator for an hour to an hour and a half. This will allow the dough to be more manageable when forming into balls with the caramel.

Once the dough has been chilled enough, scoop out balls of dough the size of golf balls. Flatten the dough slightly with the palm of your hand. Press a piece of caramel into the center of the dough and make sure to cover the caramel completely. If you are using caramel bits, place three or four bits into the dough, then seal the dough.

Set each dough ball on the parchment cookie sheets about two inches apart from each other.

Bake 10-14 minutes until the edges are very lightly browned. Do not over-bake – this will make your cookie and caramel hard.

Once the cookies have finished baking, slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheet onto the counter and allow them to cool halfway. Once they are partially cooled, flip the cookies over and allow them to cool completely. You may also choose to set the partially cooled cookies onto a cooling rack.

Skill level:
easy
Yield:
2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 packets of Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix (an entire 7.4 ounce box)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag caramel squares or bits