Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

This cookie was eaten on the podcast in episode 098 – link

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 box (10 packets) Spiced Apple Cider Instant Drink Mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 (14 ounce) bag of caramels. (Kraft caramels are OK for this)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease your cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper. These cookies can leak out the bottom, and are very sticky when they do.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
  3. In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. When light and fluffy, mix in salt and all 10 packages of apple cider mix. Really.  The whole box.
  4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla
  5. Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined, don’t overmix this.
  6. Make balls of cookie dough, and press an unwrapped caramel into the center of each. Carefully wrap the dough around the caramel until the caramel is completely sealed in. If you use whole caramels, make the balls about as big as a walnut. I prefer to make them somewhat smaller with half a caramel in each, they leak less.
  7. Place on greased or parchment covered cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake 11-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. They may not look quite done in the center but that is OK.
  8. Let the cookies cool for a bit on the pan so they firm up a little before removing them to a cooling rack. If they are leaking caramel out of the bottom, put them on the rack upside down to cool. Careful, the caramel gets really hot, so don’t burn yourself!
  9. Makes around 2-3 dozen large cookies, more if you make smaller ones.
  10. Best eaten while still warm. Om nom nom.