Salted Caramel Cookies

I'm notorious for being a candy fiend, a lover of all sweets (and sours!). But the top of the list? Definitely rich, chewy, buttery caramel. I looooove caramel. It's the essence of candy to me, simple and sugary and just delicious. Its flavours can be complex without a lot of effort. If you want to win me over, that's where my heart is: a good caramel.

I've noticed that caramel has been getting a bit trendy lately, and to my delight, one of the best caramels at that. I remember when I used to have to hunt for salted caramels, usually depending on Whole Foods for an expensive import from across the country, or settling for a less-rare-but-still-challenging-to-find salted dark chocolate bar and a side of chewy caramels. Now, though, there seems to be availability of this kind of caramel. I saw them at my local grocery store the other day, and I know when I've been to the airport a few times in the last month I've seen them in all the stores. I'm in caramel heaven!

Salted caramels. There's just something about them that hit the spot. The dark, rich chocolate pairs well with the sticky-sweet of the caramel, and then the salt that makes the mouth water… It's a wonderfully balanced composition of flavours, the salt making the sweet even sweeter, the chocolate enhancing the tang of the salt flakes. Yum.

So to honour the rise of the salted caramel, I had to make a cookie.




Salted Caramel Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

14 oz. dark chocolate chips
sea salt flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
   
3. Cream the butter and brown sugar. Add egg, condensed milk, and vanilla. Beat well.
   
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients.
   
5. Drop large teaspoons onto a non-stick baking sheet. It's a loose batter, and a bit messy, so don't expect perfect shapes here; the cookies'll spread to a pretty circular shape on their own.
   
6. Bake for 8.5 minutes. Edges will just be turning brown.
   
7. Let cookies cool completely. They cannot be even remotely warm for the next step to work correctly.
   
8. To make the topping of these cookies, melt a half-bag of high quality dark chocolate chips (or even a couple dark chocolate bars -- I'm talking 72% cocoa or higher here) in a microwave safe bowl. Try 1 minute, stir. If it still needs more heat to melt, add 20 seconds, stir again. Keep adding 20-second increments until the chocolate is still thick but melted. Be careful, chocolate burns pretty easy and its burning smell is really similar to popcorn -- it's hard to get out of the house for a while.
   
9. Drizzle the chocolate over each cookie so that a majority of the top is covered with cookie still seen on the sides.
   
10. Top with a pinch of sea salt flakes.
    
11. Allow chocolate to reharden, which will take at least a couple hours. Once solid, store. Yields approximately 3 dozen.

Enjoy!