Apple Cider Caramels

Life has been busy and I haven't gotten to do as much baking as I've wanted these past few months! I've made a few older tried-but-true recipes (like Strawberry Cream Cake and Celebration Oreos) but I haven't had time to tinker with anything new. Slowly, I'm working baking and blogging back into my routine. Here's a recipe that I was going to post last October, but didn't get the chance to... but it's relevant again since fall is here :).

Last fall, I went apple picking for the first time, and it was awesome! I've always wanted to go apple picking, but this is the first time in my life I've lived less than an hour's drive away from an apple orchard. At the orchard, along with my fresh-off-the-tree apples, a dozen homemade apple cider donuts, and some garlic cheese curds, I picked up a bottle of apple cider specifically so I could try out this recipe. I'm very glad I did.

These caramels are amazing! They have a strong apple flavor with touch of cinnamon, like apple pie. I was very impressed by the apple flavor. There's the yummy butteriness and the occasional bite of sea salt that mellows out the sweetness. Straight out of the refrigerator, the texture is firm and chewy, but at room temperature, the texture is soft and sticky, adaptable to different people's preferences (I like them straight out of the fridge). And now I'm thinking about what other fruit flavored caramels I will make next :)… I definitely recommend you give this recipe a try!

CCC Twist 1 & 2

Today's post is rather short because I've technically already posted the recipe before. I made two twists on my favorite CCC (chocolate chip cookie) recipe. At first I felt a bit like a cheater posting about these, but then I realized that they're really are that good that they deserve their own post :).

In one cookie, I subbed in chunks of white chocolate and chopped macadamia nuts. In the other cookie, I mixed in milk chocolate chips and bits of caramel. White chocolate and macadamia nuts are a winning combination in these cookies; the chunks of chocolate and nuts go well with the chewiness of the dough. The chocolate caramel cookies turned out great as well, best fresh out of the oven, with warm pockets of melted chocolate and gooey caramel in every bite.

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.