Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe for Caramel apple cookies on the blog Craftzine back in September. I filed it away as one of those recipes I thought would be great for the church pumpkin patch bake sale. The recipe comes from Katie Goodman of goodLife{eats}. Interestingly enough, she has a different recipe for caramel apple cookies that she posted on her blog last fall. The recipe on her blog doesn't call for oatmeal, but does require twice the amount of butter and eggs. I liked the recipe on Craftzine so much that I don't think I'll even test the one on Katie's blog.

The only thing I found I needed to change about the recipe was the bake time. I needed to bake the cookies for 14-16 min, and then let them cool 6 min on tray. If I tried to remove the cookies before this they started to fall apart.

The dough was really soft even after hanging out in the fridge for 1 hour. I rolled all the dough in balls and froze half. For some reason these frozen ones only took 15 min to bake.

Mrblocko didn't like that the caramel bits got hard after they cooled. Now that I've got some dough in the freezer all ready to bake, I can pop a few cookies in the oven while we are eating dinner and he can eat them while the caramel is warm and gooey.

Caramel Apple Cookies from Craftzine
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
2¾ cup old fashioned oats not quick-cooking oatmeal
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz caramel baking bits
2 cups granny smith apples

In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs. Beat until combined.Measure oatmeal into a food processor, and pulse until ground finely. In a medium-sized bowl, stir the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until combined. Set aside. Peel and finely chop the apple. Using an electric mixer, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until combined. Stir in the caramel bits and apples. It is fun to save a few of each (the apple and the caramel) for dotting on top of the rolled cookie dough balls. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour. Roll the cookie dough into golf ball-sized balls. Bake on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F, for 10-12 minutes. The sheet should be placed on the upper middle rack. Cool on the pan for 4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Note: Dough is best the day of. In time the apples add extra moisture to the dough, causing a wider spread on the baked cookies. Alternatively, you can pre-roll the dough into balls and freeze if you aren't using it all the first day. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet until solid, and then transfer to a labeled sealable freezer bag. Use within one month. Simply add an extra couple minutes to the baking time since the dough is frozen.