Recipe: Chocolate salted caramel cookies

I finished night shifts this morning so I've enjoyed the most perfect, lazy day. But this afternoon, feeling a little sleepy and low of energy, I had some sugar cravings. So naturally I just had to bake some homemade cookies. It's November... which means it's officially cookie season! The countdown to Christmas gives me just one more excuse to bake and enjoy yummy cookies to enjoy with homemade hot chocolate... what could be better on cold Winter afternoons?!

My favourite recipe ever? Gosh that would be a tough decision! But these chocolate salted caramel cookies definitely feature up there as one of my favourites. I've baked them gazillions of times now and they always go down well. Infact I can guarantee there will be none left by tomorrow...! They're rich, chocolatey and best enjoyed slightly warm so you can enjoy them in their full gooey glory.

I found this ingenious recipe a while ago on Sally's Baking Addiction. Chocolate Rolos are pressed into the middle of each ball of cookie dough to provide a soft caramel centre... SO GOOD!

You will need:
100g caster sugar
100g light brown muscavado sugar

115g butter, at room temperature
1 x teaspoon vanilla escence

2 x tablespoons milk

60g cocoa powder

1 x teaspoon baking powder

125g plain flour

150g chocolate chips

1 x egg

1 x pack Rolos

1/4 teaspoon salt

- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

- Put the butter into a food processor or stand mixer and turn onto medium speed. Cream the butter until yellow and a little fluffy.

- Add the caster sugar and the light brown muscavado sugar and mix again.

- Then beat in the egg and the vanilla essence.

 - Ensure that all the ingredients are mixed together, scraping down the sides of the bowl/processor if needed.

- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

 - Add the sifted mixture to the butter & sugar mixture and fold together. Mix on a slow speed.

- Stir in the milk and add the chocolate chips.

- If you think the mixture is a little to wet at this point, you can add more four. I usually add another tablespoon.

- Line a couple of baking trays with grease-proof paper, and put small 'dough-ball sized' balls of cookie dough onto the tray, leaving good amounts of space in between each ball (your cookies will expand when cooking and you don't want them to merge into each other!).

- Then put a chocolate Rolo into the centre of each ball and press down.

- Cover the top of each cookie with another small lump of cookie mixture to cover the Rolo. 

- The Sally's Baking Addiction recipe suggests sprinkling each cookie with some sea salt at this point, but I choose against this, as the cookies already contain salt and I'm not a big fan of adding too much salt to foods.

- Pop them in the oven and bake for 12-13 minutes. They will appear slightly soft but don't worry - they will harden up a little once cool.

And there you go, enjoy whilst still a little warm from the oven! You can enjoy the most incredible, mouth-watering, yummy caramel chocolatey flavours...

You can of course adapt this recipe further and make them gluten free by using gluten free flour...  or by making them lactose free by using dairy free butter and chocolate.

So delicious. I think I'm going to have to pack them into a box for Rob to take to work this evening to share, otherwise I'll end up eating them all myself...!

Any questions, feel free to ask and if you bake some yourself do share your photos, I'd love to see!

Lydia xxx