Caramel Surprises

Today I'll be sharing a recipe for Caramel Suprises. After making those cookies filled with peanut butter cups last time, I got the urge to make more stuffed cookies. I seem to be getting fond of this type of cookie that has a little something unexpected hidden inside.



Caramel, chocolate, and shortbread just work. The slightly melted chocolate, the perfectly gooey caramel, and the buttery sandy shortbread: three very different textures and tastes that turn each bite of the seemingly simple cookie into an exciting experience for the taste buds. Plus, they're pretty darn cute with the slight dusting of cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

Next time you have a bag of chocolate covered caramels, definitely try these out. They aren't difficult to make; the dough ended up pretty easy to shape around the candies. And the chocolate around the caramel adds another element of surprise to the cookies with no extra work on your part. Rather than just shortbread and caramel, it becomes shortbread surrounding caramel surrounding chocolate.

Caramel Surprise Cookies

adapted from The Cookie and Biscuit Bible

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
7 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
14 soft centered chocolate caramels
powdered sugar, for dusting
cocoa powder, for dusting

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet to form a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Unwrap all the candies and place on a clean surface. Take the cookie dough and split it into 14 even pieces (I like to first split it in half, then roll each half into a log, and divide the logs into 7 pieces each). Take a piece of dough and wrap it around a chocolate caramel. Flatten slightly and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes till slightly golden. Let cool on a wire rack. These cookies taste best when the chocolate of the caramels is still slightly warm and melted. To serve, dust with the powdered sugar and the cocoa powder. Once cooled, they can be zapped in the microwave for a few seconds just to remelt the chocolate. Enjoy!