The One With Homemade Caramel Delights!

It's just about the end of Girl Scout cookie season, and I realized I didn't buy a single box. The girls I thought would sell me some never did, so I missed my chance! I was feeling a little depressed about this until...tada, I magically found a recipe for homemade Caramel Delights, which are my absolute favorite! Hooray, crisis averted, I will get my Girl Scout cookie fix this year!

Anyway, the original recipe came from Baking Bites. She's kinda wordy, so hopefully I will make it a little simpler here, although it is rather complicated, for a cookie. Meaning, there are lots of steps, so hang in there! Here we go...

Step One (as always): Gather Your Ingredients (for the base cookie)

 You Will Need:

1. 1 c. butter, softened
2. 1/2 c. sugat
3. 2 c. flour (I used 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat white)
4. 1/4 tsp. baking powder
5. 1/2 tsp. salt
6. 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
7. She says up to 2 Tbs. milk. I used 5 Tbs. (Just so you are sure to have enough)
8. (Optional) Large Diet Coke from McDonald's

  

Step Two: Make the Cookie Dough

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed
3. Add vanilla and milk. Add the milk little by little until the dough mixes together without getting too sticky. This is where I just kept adding and adding!  She says you might not need all the milk, and to add some flour if the dough is too sticky. I don't know why mine was so dry. Oh well.

Step Three: Roll Out the Dough

*I had never tried this method of rolling out cookie dough before, but it worked out really well!

1. Use about 1/3 of the dough. Form it into a ball and place on a sheet of wax paper.
2. Smoosh it out a little, then cover with another sheet of wax paper. I also added a little bit of flour to the top and bottom of the dough.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out about 1/4 inch thick. I don't actually have a rolling pin - I used a water bottle. Worked just as well!

Step Four: Cut out and Bake the Cookies

1. Use a round cookie or biscuit cutter to make circle cookie shapes. I used one of my scone cutters from Scotland.

2. Use a straw to poke a hole in the middle of each cookie. (You'll see later why this was a pretty useless step.)

3. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.

4. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Step Five: Make the Topping

There are 2 pretty simple tasks involved in this step:

1. Toast the coconut: Put 3 c. shredded coconut on a baking tray. Put it in the oven at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Every 5 minutes, stir it around so it doesn't burn.

2. Make the caramel topping: Unwrap about 20 bajillion caramels (or 12 oz. of caramels). Put them in a bowl with 3 Tbs. milk and 1/4 tsp. salt. Microwave it all for about 3 minutes. Make sure you stop a few times to stir the mixture. When it's all melted, stir in the toasted coconut.

Step Six: Put it All Together

1. Glob some of the caramel mixture on top of each cookie.

2. Melt some chocoloate chips or dipping chocolate. Then dip the bottom of each cookie into the chocolate. Place the cookies on a sheet of wax paper to dry.

3. Put the rest of the melted chocolate into a ziplock and snip off the corner of the bag. Drizzle each cookie with the melted chocolate.

Enjoy!