I LOVE the Salted Caramel cookies at Great Harvest. They only have them once a week at our location. Sometimes I want them on a different day. So, I decided to try making my own. I took Betty Crocker’s Oatmeal cookie recipe and Pioneer Woman’s Oatmeal Cookie recipe and combined them to my liking to make a giant oatmeal cookie. Then, I added the caramel and sea salt.

This recipe makes 13 GIANT cookies

Ingredients:

10 caramels quartered & chopped into small pieces
1 stick unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups oats
Coarse sea salt to sprinkle on top (I just used the sea salt grinder from Costco and ground it two times over each cookie)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees or 325 degrees on convect bake (if you have this type of oven).

Cream butter, shortening, brown sugar in a mixer or with a mixer in a bowl, whichever you have. Scrape sides, add vanilla, beat on high for one minute until light and incorporated.
Add eggs, one at a time, beat until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds an egg.

Change attachments (if you are using a stand mixer) to the paddle attachment. If using a hand mixer, set aside and mix in the following by hand. Mix cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.

Mix in flour, one cup at a time, adding the 1/3 cup at the end.

Mix in oats.

Use giant cookie scoop to scoop out cookies onto cookie sheet. Flatten with palm. Score with fork.

Cook 11 minutes. Take out of the oven and quickly push the caramels into cookie, about 10 pieces into each one. Put back in oven for 3-4 minutes (these are giant cookies. Keep checking. Your time may vary depending on your oven) until light brown. (I also tried putting the caramel in at five minutes and then baking an additional ten. This resulted in a messy, ugly cookie. But if you want the caramel more incorporated, this worked. You will just have to clean up the caramel off of your baking sheet). Take out of oven. Wait one minute. Transfer to cooling rack. Sprinkle sea salt on each hot cookie. Repeat with second batch. Then turn off your oven (hey, a little reminder is always nice).

Wait five minutes before eating, because molten caramel would be no fun stuck to the roof of your mouth. And then indulge!

Edited to add on August 25, 2013: Please cover these cookies. If you do not, they get hard. And that is not good! If you do forget, you can add a piece of bread to the container. The bread will reverse some of the effects. Remove bread after keeping in container overnight. And then cover the cookies.

*If you like this recipe, you might also like:

“Let’s Make Whoopie…”

And my Chocolate Chip Cookies.