Caramel Filled Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies don't look like much.  They look like regular chocolate cookies, but they are more then the seem.

They have a hidden surprise inside.  I stuffed a caramel square inside each cookie.  The cookies are more decadent and less healthy than their looks suggest.  I wish I had a picture to show their insides, but I forgot to take a picture.  Such a tragedy!

Caramel is made by heating sugar.  For caramel to form, sugar needs to slowly reach around 340 degrees.  Around this temperature, the molecules in the sugar start to break down and reform into caramel.

The English word  came from the French, who incorporated the word into their language from 

the  Spanish word caramelo.  American caramel is also made with milk.

The chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe came from allrecipes.com.  It's a great recipe; I have used it a few times.  I used the recipe to make chocolate cookies with mini peanut butter cups, chocolate cookies with mini Cadbury Eggs, and chocolate blueberry cookies chocolate chip cookies.

I only made half of the cookie dough batter.  The ingredients are 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup white sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup chocolate chip cookies, and about 20 caramel squares.  I used Kraft.

I creamed together the butter and sugar for a few minutes. The butter and sugar become light and fluffy.

I beat in the egg and vanilla.

I added the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.  I stirred until the batter was combined.

I mixed in the chocolate chips.

I scooped portions of the dough and formed the dough around a caramel square.  

 I formed the dough around the caramel and placed the mounds two inches apart on a greased sheet pan.  I baked the cookies for around 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

I let the cookies cool a little on the pan before removing them and letting them cool completely on a wire rack.

These were some decadent little cookies.

They were rich and chocolatey. 

The texture was chewy and fudge like.  

They edges were a little crisp.  The caramel centers were creamy, smooth, and sweet.

The chocolate and caramel were a perfect combination.

For being so simple, they were exquisite cookies.  I am trying to be healthier and made the goal of only eating two.  I failed miserably, but they were worth the splurge.