05 September 2013



It's time for the second installment of my newest monthly challenge, Fill the Cookie Jar.


This month's theme was fall cookies.  So many options there.  I found lots of fall cookie recipes I wanted to try, but caramel apple cookies won out over all of them.  I got the recipe from Smashed Peas and Carrots.

Caramel Apple Cookies

Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup shortening
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1½ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 (11 oz.) package caramel baking bits

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening, and both sugars together.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.  In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing well.  Stir in the oats, apple pieces, and caramel bits. 

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment- lined cookie sheet or a stoneware baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cookies cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to a cooling rack or parchment paper.  (Don’t use wax paper!)

Makes about 4 dozen.


I didn't change too much about this recipe.  The original recipe called for dried apples because the blogger thought that fresh apples "fermented" in baked goods.  Not sure what that means, but I decided to walk on the wild side and use fresh apples.  Trust me, these cookies are so good that nothing is going to have a chance to "ferment" because they will be eaten so quickly.  I also used more caramel bits than she did. There was about a half a cup left in the bag, so I just dumped the whole thing in there. ;)

Make sure you remove these cookies to parchment.  They stick like crazy.  I baked mine on stoneware, and didn't need parchment.  They came off the stoneware just fine, but I was out of parchment, so I put down wax paper and put them on there. BAD IDEA!! The caramel stuck like glue.  Luckily, I had only baked half of the cookie dough, so I put the other half in the fridge, went out and bought parchment paper, and tried again the next day.  They didn't stick to the parchment.

These are the yummiest cookies ever!  Like a caramel apple in cookie form.  I liked how the recipe called for both butter and shortening because that's how my mom makes her chocolate chip cookies and they are still my favorite.  Nice and chewy, not thin and crispy or cake-like.  I also loved how this recipe called for oats, as I love oats in cookies.  They were just perfect.

I guess this is officially my first fall recipe of the season!  I am very sorry to see summer go, but my one consolation is that I do love fall cooking.  Time to bust out the apples, maple, pecan, and best of all, pumpkin!

Check out the other fall cookies below and come back next month to see what kind of Halloween cookies I come up with.



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9 comments:

  1. You can't beat the apple and caramel combo. This looks delicious.

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  2. Yum they look great and perfect combination of apples and caramel!

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  3. Michelle Rushing HiltonSeptember 5, 2013 at 3:21 PM

    These sound delicious! I love caramel apples!

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  4. Oh my, but I do love how you have caramel in your cookies! I am trying that one when I am ready to be addicted.

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  5. Great minds think a like... I have made them both with raw apples and dried apples and think I like dried better personally. I never thought of using my stoneware to bake them.. I do know that they stick when you don't put a baking mat on your cookie sheet.

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  6. I love those little caramel bits! They make baking so easy and add in the apples and they sound amazing!

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  7. I made these and they were a huge success! I couldn't locate any caramel baking pieces and they seemed to be a huge pain during the baking process, so instead I bought a premade jar of caramel and just drizzled over cooled cookies - it's a LOT simpler!

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