December 11, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

The Easiest Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

Come here.

Closer.

There.

That should be close enough. I have a secret I want to share with you. It involves zero guilt and tons more time on your hands. The secret is this, “There ain’t no shame in the faking it game.”

I read a food blog I adore recently that condemned store bought pie crust. I love that blog. This ain’t that blog. I like homemade pie crust. I like homemade cookie dough. I like my house vacuumed frequently. I like to read after dinner. But we all know there simply isn’t enough time in the day for all of our “likes” and “wants.” Heck. There is barely enough time for the “needs.”

So let’s fake us some homemade cookie bars, shall we?

I won’t tell if you don’t.

I was so pleasantly surprised how well these cookie bars turned out. I do highly recommend using parchment paper, because the bars are too sticky to get out otherwise.

Ingredients:

2 packages of sugar cookie dough logs or 1 package of the preflattened sugar cookie dough (I prefer the preflattened kind made by Nestle. It ends up being cheaper, but the logs make a prettier cookie bar)
1/3 cup caramel sauce
1/3 cup toffee bits
Sea salt
Parchment paper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place parchment paper in an 11 X 7 baking dish. Take a log of sugar cookie dough and press it into place over the parchment paper or lay one layer of your flat cookie dough and push it into the corners of the parchment paper (depending upon which premade sugar cookie dough you purchased). Put into the oven and bake for fifteen minutes.

Remove from oven. Microwave caramel for 25 seconds to soften and make it easier to pour. Measure it out. Pour over slightly cooked cookie dough. Sprinkle the toffee bits on top. Now sprinkle sea salt over top. Just give it a nice dusting.

I have a hand-cranked dispenser from Costco, so I turn it seven to ten times over the caramel.

Now break up your remaining cookie dough log over the top if you bought the logs or simply place the other cookie sheet over the top, if you bought the preflattened kind.

Put the whole thing back into the oven and bake for twenty five minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for one hour before cutting into bars. I lift the parchment paper with the cookie bar in place and then lay it on my counter before I cut this into bars with my pizza cutter.

Now eat this sinfully simple (or would it be simply sinful dessert?). Either way, it is good. It is quick. It is easy. This is my husband’s favorite cookie lately. It is equally good served warm with vanilla ice cream on top drizzled with caramel sauce.

Just bake it. (I am pretty sure Nike did not mean bake a million calories into a dessert when they made that slogan, but I will oblige them by running to the stove the moment these babies are done. That’s gotta burn a zillion calories, right?).

November 27, 2013 by gn0mel0ver

Cookie Butter Oatmeal Cookies

A tasty friendship
Cookie butter and oatmeal
Together at last

So, cookie butter in cookies? Oh, yes. Honestly, this cookie dough could be eaten by itself without the addition of chocolate. But if I am going to indulge, I want it to mean something. Let’s take this relationship to the next level, cookie butter. Let’s make some babies. I mean, um, cookies. Let’s make some cookies. No need to rush things. Now, just take off that lid…

This recipe makes approximately 40 cookies.

1/3 cup cookie butter
1 stick (8 Tbsp.) softened salted butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
90 pieces of Clasen sea salt caramel melting chocolate (about 2/3 pound)*
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar packed
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups oats

Preheat your oven to 360 degrees or 335 degrees convect bake.

In a mixer or with a handheld mixer in a bowl, cream together butter, shortening, and sugar. Add vanilla. Mix. Add cookie butter mix.

Add eggs one at a time into the batter and beat approximately thirty seconds each.

At this point I change attachments from the wire whisk to the paddle. If you are using a hand mixer, mix the following in by hand. Mix in salt, cinnamon, and baking soda.

Mix in flour.

Mix in oats.

With a small cookie dispenser, dispense cookies onto a cookie sheet. Press a melting chocolate into the center of the dollop to flatten cookie. Shape cookie back into a circle around chocolate. Bake 10-11 minutes until lightly brown.

Remove from oven. With a spatula, transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Repeat process until dough is used up.

Melt 50 melting chocolates in a small bowl in the microwave for thirty second intervals. Stir after every thirty seconds until completely melted. Place paper towel under cooling rack. Drizzle melted chocolate over cookies.

Let cookies cool and cover them. If you do not cover, cookies will harden over night. You can reverse the hardened process by placing a slice of fresh bread into the cookie container all day. Or reheat your cookies in the microwave for twenty seconds. But I would just cover them and save yourself a few steps.

And enjoy! Cookie butter you are so good to me. Hmmm, what would our babies ~~taste~~ look like?

* You could use Hershey’s Kisses for a chocolatey version, if you do not have access to Clasen Brand melting chocolates. You could also just mix in some chocolate chips or raisins and call it a day.

July 14, 2013 by gn0mel0ver

Salted Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

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.

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

caramel

Salted Caramel Oatmeal Cookies