½cupcaramel morsel chips(or chopped caramel squares OR 1 teaspoon of caramel extract)
½cupsemi-sweet chocolate chips
¼cupmini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and sift together into a larger bowl.
Cream butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, just a few minutes using a hand mixer. Add sugar and brown sugar to butter and use hand mixer again until well incorporated.
Add eggs and extract to butter batter all at once and mix again
Combine batter to sifted flour mixture and blend again with the hand mixer.
Add chocolate chips and caramel pieces to the dough and mix with a rubber spatula.
Using a 1 ½ inch cookie scoop, place rounded balls of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (in case some of the caramel candies are on the side and ooze out) approximately 1-2 inches apart from one another. You should be able to fit about 9 dough balls on the standard size cookie sheet.
Bake for 18 minutes in the center of the oven, turning the cookie sheet halfway through if your oven shows any unevenness during baking.
Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a wire rack with a spatula for further cooling.
Notes
You may substitute erythritol for any cup-for-cup sugar substitute.
Sifting the dry ingredients is an important step and helps to ensure the end cookie is nice and fluffy. If you prefer a more crisp, dense cookie then simply whisking together dry ingredients will be enough.
You don’t have to use parchment paper during the baking process but some caramel pieces may ooze out or be on the bottom of the dough ball. This could cause some burning of the candy and sticking of cookies to the cookie sheet without parchment paper.
I used a combination of mini and standard sized chocolate morsels to ensure there is chocolate in every bite and well distributed.
Caramel morsels can be hard to find. However, the candy section of any grocer is likely to have the soft, chewy, caramel squares. They are a bit tough to cut but worth the extra effort to have true chewable chunks throughout your cookie. Do not use hard candied caramels.