Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

By cindyandmojo

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 tbsp salted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 dozen caramels (such as Kraft) or Rolos, unwrapped
• coarse sea salt
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Details

Servings 24
Adapted from cookingclassy.com

Preparation

Step 1

If you prefer you can omit the coarse sea salt from the recipe if you are not a fan of salted caramel. I personally am unequivocally in love with the addition. These taste like caramel brownies in cookie form. They are intensely delicious! If you are baking them for someone else you’ll have a hard time wanting to gift them after all =). If you wanted to go all out with these cookies you could even toss in some semi-sweet chocolate chips and toasted nuts.  Enjoy!

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, set aside. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, whip together butter, granulated sugar and light-brown sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until combine. Mix in vanilla. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combine.

Scoop dough out 2 tbsp at a time and roll into a ball. Press one caramel into the center, sprinkle top of caramel with a small pinch of coarse sea salt then fold cookie dough around caramel and salt (make sure the caramel is fully covered with dough around all sides). Shape into a ball once more then roll in powdered sugar*. Align cookies on Silpat lined or buttered cookie sheets and bake in preheated oven 11 - 13 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool (note that the caramel will set after it cools, I liked these cookies best warm for soft gooey caramel). Store in an airtight container.

*I gave my cookies a generous coating of the powdered sugar before baking, but when they baked a lot of the powdered sugar baked and dissolved into the cookie anyway. So I found you can coat the top again with powdered sugar after baking (which is not pictured) to get a prettier cookie. If doing so roll in powdered sugar once before baking (doesn't need to be generously), then bake them and allow to cool and dip the tops of cookies in a fresh batch of powdered sugar (so there is no cross contamination) and shake off some of the excess. If you want to do it that way I would recommend using 1/2 cup powdered sugar for rolling before baking and reserve 1/4 cup in a separate bowl to dip and coat the tops after baking.

sally @ sallys baking addiction

Anonymous: I have never baked in my life (because I refuse to say using a package of muffin mix is baking!) and decided to bake these yummy treats…well last night I baked 9 doz of these amazing cookies and your instruction was easy, my cookies look just like the picture and I’ve impressed my little world – THANKS!!!

: You may have softened your butter a bit too much? The best way to solve the problem of dealing with sticky dough is to refrigerate it until you find it easy enough to work with. I didn’t have to do it with mine but if you find yours to be sticky again next time then simply place it in the fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour and that should solve the problem. Hope that helps!

: It doesn’t as mentioned above =) it does cool and harden to it’s original state that’s why I liked them best warm with stretchy soft caramel. I think rolos have softer caramel so if you wanted to add a rolo instead that would also be wonderful. I hope you enjoy!

: Hi Mindy – if you don’t have the sea salt I would just recommend leaving it out because regular salt would just kind of dissolve completely into the cookie and make it taste too salty rather than having a few hints of salt over the caramel. Hope that helps!

: Fab idea – it’s one of those things that looks difficult to make but easy when you know how! Great pic too – making me hungry! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous: Yum! I think I’m going to make these for Santa!! :-)

Nikki: If I don’t have a stand up mixer can I use a hand mixer to make these?

: It may work but I wouldn’t want you to burn the motor up on your mixer =), I would say definitely the first portion you could then as it gets really thick as you start adding the dry ingredients just mix it by hand with a wooden spoon. Hope you enjoy!

: Mine came out way to sticky and I didn’t have time to refrigerate:( I think it’s bc I mixed to much with my hand mixer? They look funny but hopefully they still taste good.

: Next time I would say freeze it if in a rut 15 minutes can make a difference. Sorry they were sticky!

: If you have an average size stand mixer I think you’d be fine to double it.

: Just made these, they’re cooling as I write this. They look good, but I might add more powdered sugar for that “snowy” look. I actually made them with Splenda and rollos, (I know counter-productive), because that’s what my parents had in the cupboard. Still worked well! Thanks!

Anonymous: Do you think these would freeze okay? I want to make them ahead of time.

: Personally I don’t like to freeze most of the bake goods I make but if you do, yes these should freeze fine – similar to they way a chocolate chip cookie freezes. Just be sure to bring them to room temp before serving =).

Anonymous: I would love to make these for a family Christmas this Friday…just was wondering I know you said that the carmel in the center gets hardened, but does it harden so much that it would break teeth? Just concerned as I know I won’t be able to bake them right before I head out. Thanks! They look AMAZING!!

Kristy: These cookies were amazing!! I was looking for something different to add to my usual cookie list this past holiday season and this cookie was perfect! Everyone loved them and I will def be making them again soon. Thanks for sharing.

Elex: I just started pursuing my culinary degree in pastry and baking. This week is cookie week, and today was our “cookie competition”. Out of 14 competitors I placed third!!!! Thank you so much Jaclyn for your wonderful recipe and beautiful blog! I can’t wait to try your other recipes for future competitions! Thanks again!

***make sure you serve these hot!!!

: If you want chewier cookies you can try using half unbleached flour or bread flour (the rest all-purpose). You can increase the bake time (and yes maybe reduce the temp slightly if your oven cooks hot) and maybe reduce the butter by a Tbsp. Some people also like to add a few tsp cornstarch for chewiness and use more brown sugar in place of some white. And yes I imagine they would freeze fine and that is what I would do just as you said, bring them to room temp (or close) before baking then roll in powdered sugar and bake. Hope that helps!

jenny allen: I made these tonight and the mix could be rolled as easy as pulling hens teeth , nice flat cookies , haven,t tried them yet

MissNewEngland: Wow … these are way too good to use store-bought caramels, which to me are too hard and too sicky sweet. Caramel is so easy to make (even salted caramel) … if you freeze it and break it into chunks, it works perfectly in this recipe and has a less sweet fresher taste.

: [...] time please follow the link to the cookie recipe I came across via Pinterest,  it can be found here. I added some Smarties and a ice cream topping mix to the recipe. I poured the topping mix into a [...]

Marybeth Knight: My mouth’s watering already! Crinkles have been a staple of my family’s holiday cookie tradition, but adding the salted caramel is genius! I can’t wait to try!

Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkles | MixPourBake

Thanks so much for sharing! I’ll definitely add to my recipe book.

: It sounds like they probably just needed more flour. It may be due to humidity or the way the flour is measured but I would try adding a bit more and hopefully that helps!

Heather: Hi, I made these last night. They looked great when I pulled them out of the oven. I followed all your tips, but had problems getting them to release from the pan. Second pan, I lifted them a little sooner to the rack, and the caramel oozed out the bottoms…and right through the rack! What did I do wrong? I’d like to try again!

Portia: Thanks for this recipe, cookies came out fantastic! I love it when it’s simple to make something so novel. Looking forward to feedback at tomorrow’s cookie exchange…

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