Salty Dark Chocolate Cookies with a Caramel Surprise Center

I have a treat for you. Think a very dark chocolate cookie with chocolate chunks and a surprise caramel center inside. Add some flaky sea salt and you got this price-winning cookie. I am not kidding. Sally from Sallysbakingaddiction.com actually won a baking contest with these cookies. It doesn’t surprise me, they are really and truly worth every bite!

They are this type of cookie which make you close your eyes so that you don’t miss a tiny little bit of its wonderful flavor. Even my husband, you doesn’t like the sweet and salty combination in cookies got excited. That really means something. Actually a lot.

They are not hard to prepare, the only part that takes a little bit of time is actually rolling them and placing the caramel in the middle of two smaller cookies. Other than that they are very straight-forward.

Sally recommends to use Rolos for the filling. However, as they not that easy to find in Germany, I went for a simple caramel toffee, they can be find in regular grocery stores such as Rewe, etc. Mine were called “Sahne Muh-Muhs“. I have seen “Kuhbonbons“, “Werther’s Original” and “Durchbeißer“. Either of them will do. Obviously you can go with a Rolo. Just look for a caramel toffee and you will be fine.

But now let’s get to business and bake this delicious cookie!

Salty Dark Chocolate Cookies with a Caramel Center

Servings: about 12 cookies
Time: 30mins preparation + 1hr chilling time + 14mins baking
Difficulty: fairly easy
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A salty chocolate cookie worth every caramel bite

Credit: Sallys Baking Addiction (she won a price with this recipe)

Ingredients

115 grams of unsalted butter (Süßrahmbutter), at room temperature*
50 grams of regular white sugar (weißer Zucker)
70 grams of brown sugar (brauner Zucker)
1 egg, size L at room temperature**
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, see here how to make your own
125 grams of all-purpose flour (Mehl, Type 405)
50 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder (ungesüßtes Kakaopulver)
1 teaspoon of baking soda (Natron)
a pinch of salt (Prise Salz)
2 tablespoons of milk (Milch)
200 grams of semi-sweet chocolate chunks (zartbitter Schokolade, kleingehackt)
12 caramel toffees (Karamelltoffees, wie z.B. Rolo, Wether’s Original, Durchbeißer, Kuhbonbons)
sea salt (Meeressalz)

*Leave the butter in a sunny place in summer and on the heating in winter. It will soften very quickly

**If you forgot to take the eggs out on time, simply put them in a small bowl with warm water, they are ready in less than 5 minutes

Directions

Cream the butter in a large bowl for a minute. Add the sugars and cream for a couple of minutes.
Add the egg and mix a little more. Add the vanilla extract and make sure the batter is all creamy and no lumps are seen.
Sift (sieben) the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt on top of the butter mix and mix with a mixer on low speed until evenly dark brown.
Stir in the milk, then fold in the chopped up chocolate chunks.
Chill for at least one hour or over night in the fridge.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsisus and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (Backpapier).
Take dough out of the fridge and use about one tablespoon per cookies. You should be able to make 24 cookies. Roll them with your hands until each has the size of a walnut and is round.
Now take the caramel toffees (I cut mine in half as they were too big) and place 12 caramel toffees on 12 cookies. Take the left 12 cookies and put them on top of the cookies with the caramel.
Create one big cookie out of the two cookies with the caramel toffee in the middle. Now the size should be the size of a tennis ball. Make sure that the caramel toffee is securely stuffed inside. Repeat with all 12 cookies.
Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for about 14 minutes. The center should still look soft and only the edges should be brown.
Let cookies sit on baking sheet and add some more sea salt.

Tips:

The cookie dough can be made the day before. You will only need about half an hour to have the cookie ready to eat.
Obviously you can stuff the cookie with any other small sweet. I was thinking of the famous Toffifee, Nutella or some other deliciousness. Go wild!
These cookies taste even better the second or third day! Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.
For the caramel to melt in your mounth, microwave cookies for a little bit or put on a toaster.

Greetings from Jenny