Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

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Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

I have been working. A lot. This is my excuse for not blogging my baking lately. I have been baking but I have been so wound up in getting my baked goods out of the house -so I don't stuff my face with them, that I havent done adequate blogging. Not a good excuse- but the truth.


So anyway, when I finally got around to baking and even better- actually blogging about it this was the result: deliciousness. I wanted to make something "autumnal" cause well.. it's autumn. I love the fall. The smells, the flavors, the scarfs and football. Really and truely, the only thing I dislike about the fall is that it means winter is that much closer. I'm a summer baby, and me and winter are not on good terms. Never have been, never will be. The fall however is a perfect time to embrace the chill and the flavors of the season. In this case, its apples. Apple cider is warm and comforting and a classic.

These cookies are really simple to make but are packed with fall flavor. Feel free to play around with the amount of cinnamon, cider mix, caramel, really its up to you. Enjoy the season, enjoy the apples and enjoy the cookies!

Original Recipe: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/11/caramel-apple-cider-cookies.html

Ingredients:
1 cup crisco (butter flavor) - or you can use 1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 oz) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (10 packets)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 (14 ounce) bag of Kraft chewy caramels (I didnt need all of them)

Directions:
1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Beat together crisco, sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, and stir in the 10 packets of cider mix.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients- not the caramel though!
4. Once ingredients are well mixed, take 1" balls of the dough and form into "patty" shape. Place an unwrapped caramel in the middle and wrap the dough around the caramel on all sides. An alternative method is to form a ball with the dough and press your thumb into the dough  making a large hole, and placing the caramel inside and then enclosing the dough around the caramel. Either method will yield the same results. Essentially you want to get the caramel in the middle of a ball of dough. The balls of dough will appear large, but do not spread much.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. smaller cookies with less dough will need less time than this. I dont recommend using too much dough or you will end up with a cookie that has caramel in the middle but a lot of excess 'cookie' around the edges and will get bites without caramel stuffing. ya know what I'm saying? If you use too much dough, you'll know what I'm saying. Bake the cookies until the edges begin to brown. the middles may look slightly undone. These cookies do not brown very much so a brown cookie is a burnt cookie.
6. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet in order to ensure that the bottom is not too soft and you won't lose your chunk of caramel. --this is when using enough dough comes in handy: using too LITTLE dough can result in the caramel 'leaking through' the dough and onto your baking sheet.
7. Allow cookies to complete cooling on wax paper or cooling rack.

These are awesome as is, or you can really make them visually appealing by melting caramel over the tops (or dipping the bottoms ?!), or sprinkling with cinnamon (although they have quite a bit of flavor).

Hopefully you enjoy the season as much as I do.


Enjoy!!