Carmel apple cookies--> Success!

In my baking frenzy on Christmas Eve, I tried out a recipe for Carmel Apple Cookies from pinterest from this site.

I love carmel and apple and cookies, so I figured what the heck!? I can say that these weren't as popular as the monster cookies. That may have also been because when people jokingly asked if there was apple in the cookie, I replied "no." That may have thrown things off.

Here is the recipe from the website above (and the picture on the right is from the website):

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets (I found this in my grocery store near the hot chocolate mixes.)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups all purpose flour

1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment. (You really need the parchment!)
• In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
• With your mixer (or an energetic spoon) cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.
• Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.
• Refrigerate for about an hour. (If you're really impatient you don't have to do this, but it makes it so much easier to work with.)
• When you are ready to bake, unwrap your caramels.
• Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut.
  
• Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets 2 inches apart.
• Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Please don't over-bake! Once the cookies are done, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment or on a rack.) If you forget about them and they cool too much and stick to your parchment, put them into the freezer for a few minutes and they'll pop right off.
• Yield: about 4 dozen, depending on how large you make your cookies (or how many caramels have been snitched out of your bag before you begin.) Store in an airtight container.

I pretty much followed the recipe above. Here is what I learned:

1) Putting the dough in the fridge really did help. Don't be too impatient :-)

2) As someone who hates nuts (just add that to the list), I had no clue the size of a walnut. I can tell you, it is smaller than what I estimated. As a result, the caramel to cookie ratio was a bit low.
Here is the size of a walnut (BTW, just put in walnut size to google images and see what lovely things come up)-------------------------->

Well, that just shows you a walnut. My investigation resulted in learning that "the size of a walnut" was common in cooking in the "olden days" and is about a tablespoon.

3) These cookies stuck to parchment paper. Definitely use parchment paper. My husband had to take a knife to get them off of it without the middle coming off (he slide a butcher knife under it). So don't ignore the step telling you to flip them over

4) I did use the exact brand of apple cider and caramel they recommended. I'm sure you can spice it up a bit :-)

Here they are (actual picture!):



With the exception of my 6 year old cousin, most people seemed to enjoy them!

Enjoy!