Dark Chocolate Cookies with Caramel and Sea Salt

I used to have no interest in baking cookies. I didn't like having to always be hopping up and down to put sheet after sheet of cookies in the oven after mixing up the dough. Cupcakes seemed so much easier since, with a standard recipe, it's once in the oven and done. However, I have since taken to baking my cupcakes one tin at a time to thwart my crappy apartment oven's attempts to ruin my cupcakes by lack of circulation in the oven. I also started making my cookies really big so that there were fewer sheets of them to bake. I also realized that the frosting of the cupcakes requires a second go-around in the kitchen after everything is cool, whereas cookies are ready for the munching. Hence, I've been on a bit of a cookie kick. Here are the latest in this craze, my dark chocolate cookies with caramel bits and sea salt:

Sorry, no fancy pics, I made the and immediately took them to my friends' house to watch football. I have to say that they were really yummy, but the caramel bits were low quality and next time I will find some fancy caramel to use instead. Also, this recipe made very few cookies, double for any sort of larger gathering.

Recipe:
Dark Chocolate Cookies with Caramel Bits and Sea Salt (from Two Peas & Their Pod)

1 1/4c flour
1/4t baking soda
1/4t salt
5T butter
7T Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
2/3c sugar
1/3c brown sugar
1/3c yogurt (I used vanilla Greek yogurt because it's what I had)
1t vanilla
soft caramel, rolled into balls
sea salt

Preheat 350F. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Transfer to large mixing bowl. Add cocoa and sugars, mix well. Add yogurt and vanilla, stir until combined. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Wrap the chocolate dough balls around the caramel and place on baking sheet. Slightly flatten dough and sprinkle sea salt on top. Bake 7 minutes. cool completely.
Enjoy!

Apple Cider Cookies Stuffed with Caramel

My coworkers were begging for a treat before Thanksgiving break so I decided to go with this festive recipe. The cookies taste like you are literally eating apple cider, then the caramel oozes out and you're in heaven! I will say that these are best straight from the oven or with a 10 sec shot from the microwave since the caramel tends to stiffen up after cooling. Check them out:

Recipe:
Apple Cider Cookies Stuffed with Caramel (from Gimme Some Oven)

3c flour
1t baking soda
1/2t baking powder
1t cinnamon
2 sticks butter, softened
1c sugar
1/2t salt
1 (7.4oz, 10pkgs) box Apple Cider Instant Drink Mix
2 eggs
1t vanilla
1 (14oz) bag Kraft caramels, unwrapped

Preheat to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well. gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix until just combined.

Make about 2T balls of dough and press a caramel into each one. Smoosh the dough around the caramel so that it is no longer showing. Place on cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool on baking rack.

*I also think that the Kraft caramel bits would be good instead of a whole caramel. Just stir a bag of them in at the very end and scoop the dough directly onto the cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Butter Bars

I'm back into my 'to try' recipe pile and digging out any of the non-cupcake recipes that were neglected last month due to the 12 Days of Cupcakes. I found these Salted Caramel Butter Bars that looked relatively easy and delicious. I decided to add chocolate chips to one of the pans (I made two 8x8 pans instead of one 13x9 pan) and I think I'm in love with these chocolate chip salted caramel butter bars. I also found that I only used about 2/3 of the dough so the recipe has been altered accordingly. Here are my pics:






Recipe
Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Butter Bars (adapted from Cookies and Cups recipe):

Crust/Topping:
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2/3c sugar
1c powdered sugar
1T vanilla
2 2/3c flour

Filling:
4 (5.5oz) bags of Werther's chewy caramels, unwrapped
1/2c milk
1t vanilla
1T Kosher salt
1/4c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Crust/Topping:
Preheat to 325F. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla and beat until combined. Sift in flour and beat on low speed until a smooth soft dough forms. Press 1/2 of the dough into a greased 13"x9" (or two 8"x8" pans) to form the crust. Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes. Chill other half of dough in refrigerator.

Filling:
In a microwave safe bowl, add the milk to the caramels. Heat at 30sec intervals, stirring in between, until caramels are completely melted. Pour the caramel over crust. Sprinkle Kosher salt on top of the caramel before in cools.

Topping:
Remove the remaining dough from the refrigerator and crumble on top of the caramel. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top as well. Bake until the filling is bubbly and topping is firm, about 15 minutes. Cool before cutting.

Enjoy!

Most delicious richness ever: Snickers Tart

I was invited to attend a Halloween carnival with my friend Stephanie this past weekend and there happened to be a dessert contest following for the 'young adults' of her church. Now, I love me some competition and Halloween AND baking so this was going to be money. The contest indicated that the dessert had to be Halloween-ish and I had this recipe from the last Martha Stewart Living that I was waiting for a reason to try. The dessert was called a Peanut, Caramel, and Chocolate Tart but I call it the Snickers-inspired Tart. This is not for the faint of heart, I can barely finish a sliver per sitting. It's uber decadent and somewhat time consuming. Here are some of my pictures of the final product (*note: they do not do it justice, see pictures from Martha's website):
Assembly Line of Ingredients:

The Mangled first slice (there were only plastic knives at the event):

Clean slice:




Snickers-Inspired Tart (from Martha Stewart Living)

Cookie Crust:
1 (9oz) box chocolate wafer cookies, finely ground (for this I bought a package of store brand oreos and scraped the cream off the center and blended the cookies in my blender)
1 T sugar
1/4t salt
1 stick butter, melted (perhaps less because my crust was rock hard)

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine cookie crumbs, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Stir in butter. Press mixture into bottom and up the sides of a 9" springform pan. Bake until dry and firm, about 10 minutes. Cool completely.


Caramel Sauce:
1 1/4c sugar
1/4c water
1c heavy cream
1/3c creme fraiche (I used crema mexicana)
1c roasted salted peanuts

Heat sugar and water in a medium saucepan over med-high heat until a dark amber color (about 12 minutes). Carefully add heavy cream (it will bubble and hiss). Bring mixture to a boil and melt any caramel that seized when cream was added. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in creme fraiche. Refrigerate until cool. I actually froze mine for about an hour to speed the process up. fold in peanuts.


Peanut Butter Mousse:
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2c powdered sugar
1/2t salt
1 1/4c smooth peanut butter (I used reduced fat JIF)
1/2t vanilla
1c heavy cream

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until fluffy. Beat in salt. Add peanut butter and vanilla, beat until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk heavy cream until medium stiffness peaks form. Fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture in 3 additions, making sure whipped cream is fully incorporated for each addition.


**Here you should assemble the parts of the tart that you have. Pour the caramel into the crust and then carefully spread peanut butter mousse over the caramel, ensuring that the layers don't mix. You can also refrigerate the crust with the caramel sauce for 30 minutes to ensure no mixing of layers. After you add the peanut butter, refrigerate for 30 minutes.


Chocolate Ganache:
8oz semisweet chocolate
1c heavy cream

In small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer over med-high heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate to the cream and let sit for 1 minute. Whisk until completely combined. Pour ganache over peanut butter mousse layer. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Really involved process, but totally worth it! Enjoy!

P.S. I won a $10 gift card for winning the dessert contest!