Salted Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Truffle Cookies (Easy)

Whoa!  How can you not like eating chocolate, caramel, and salt all in one!  You can't!  Unless, of course, you are allergic to one of them, perish the thought and then I would have to say "I am so sorry for you"!  I made these gratifying cookies today for tonight's Valentine's Day dessert after dinner.  I had a few crumble on me so I could not serve those up so I had to eat them.  Whoa baby!  This recipe is easy to make but follow my tips for it instead of the actual recipe from the site itself.  The recipe called for Rolo's, I instead chose to use caramels.  (I am coming back to now say use Rolo's for the middle but use caramel for the drizzle.  The caramel middle hardened hours later when I tasted one and I found it not as enjoyable to bite into as when I first did when it was still warm out of the oven.   A Rolo would certainly stay softer, go with that.  You live and you learn.)  There were avoidable mistakes in this recipe and I now know what to do the next time I make it.  Oh yeah, this recipe is a cool weather recipe, if it is hot outside, they will be gooey all over the place.  Luckily today we are having a pleasant February 14, 2012 here in Houston, TX, 58 degrees.  Makes 30 cookies.

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/salted-caramel-stuffed-chocolate-truffle-cookies/b7433fa8-9df2-490c-b5fc-91f2a108e293

Ingredients:

• 1 roll (16.5 oz) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
• 1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp Kosher (coarse) salt
• 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (Pay attention to the mini, they must be mini in order for them to be able to mold around the caramel easily)
• 1 (14 oz) bag Kraft caramels, unwrapped, 30 in one bowl, 20 in another bowl. (1 bag of caramels will complete this recipe, no need for 2 bags.) (Correction, 1 bag of Rolo's(30 unwrapped) for the middles and you will need 1 bag of caramels (20 unwrapped) for the drizzle.)

Topping:

• 20 caramels, unwrapped
• 2 tbsp whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

Directions:

1. Let cookie dough stand at room temperature for 20 minutes to soften.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  (I would hold off on heating the oven up until you start the process of rolling the cookie balls.)
2. In a mixing bowl, combine cocoa and whipping cream and 1/2 tsp Kosher salt with a wooden spoon until blended well. It will not completely blend, there will be some loose cocoa around the bowl, it will combine once you add the room temperature cookie dough.
3. Add the mini chocolate chips, stir to combine. Crumble cookie dough into mixture. (I made a small slit on the end of the cookie dough roll and the dough started oozing out like toothpaste and I kept on cutting it off with the wooden spoon for the crumbling process instead of having to use my hands for crumbling, it was tidier and easier because then I could twist the other end that was not slit down like a tube of toothpaste until all of it came out.) Mix well, dough will be sticky. Freeze dough for 15 minutes. (Now you see why I say do not preheat the oven yet?)
4. Shape the dough around each individual caramel making 30 balls.  This is where I would now say start preheating the oven.  Completely cover each caramel. The dough is going to be sticky, wet hands are helpful here.  
5. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Instead line it with parchment paper. (This is not suggested at all in the recipe but I do believe this helps in the process of the caramel not sticking to the actual cookie sheet when done baking because when I removed the cookies from it some crumbled. I followed the steps like the original recipe said and let them cool for 2 minutes and it was a mess, crumbling and sticking.)
6. Bake 9-13 minutes or until edges of cookies are set. (I baked mine 10 minutes.) Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes; remove to cooling racks. (Do not remove to cooling racks! Do not! They will ooze caramel through the cooling racks, crumble and ruin. I learned the hard way. I salvaged what I could and transferred them to parchment paper on top of the counter. ) 
7. Meanwhile, in small microwave safe bowl, microwave 20 caramels and 2 tbsp whipping cream uncovered on High 45 seconds to 1 minute, stirring ever 15 seconds or until caramel is melted and mixture is smooth. 
8. Spoon drizzle caramel over cookies and each time you drizzle, sprinkle a dab of Kosher salt over the wet caramel so it sticks to the caramel. (If you wait until the end of all the cookies being drizzled they will have all hardened.) (Another point to make about having the cookies cool on the counter on top of parchment paper is the mess that drizzling caramel produces if it were on a wire cooling rack, now you can use the wire cooling rack, just make sure you line it with parchment paper first.)
9. Be sure to store in a cool, dry place.

Needed ingredients. I only needed one bag of caramels. I will save the other one to make this recipe again at a later date!

Whipping cream, cocoa, and salt. It really does not blend completely.  A wooden spoon definitely is a help here.

The cookie dough and mini chocolate chips have been added and it is quite sticky. Time to put in freezer for 15 minutes.

My bag of caramels divided for two different purposes, 30 on the left, 20 on the right.

Before baking. I made the mistake but did not realize it until after the fact that you need to line the cookie sheet with parchment paper. They will stick if you don't.

Do not make the same mistake as I did, I did not have them spaced 2 inches apart. They ran into each other, but it was okay, they still came off fine except for the ones that crumbled and stuck because their caramel leaked out underneath.

These poor cookies! What they have been through up until this point! I had a hard time removing them from the cookie sheets and then I put them on the wire cooling rack and they started to glue themselves to it, then I had to try and salvage them off of that quickly. I finally wised up and used a piece of parchment paper on top of the counter and transferred the ones that did not crumble to pieces onto it.  Whew! I am just glad I have cookies to offer my family for dessert tonight after dinner.

20 caramels melted with 2 tbsp whipping cream. You don't even use all this.

See the mess drizzling caramel makes? Parchment paper is the answer to easy clean up and removal! Make sure you sprinkle the kosher salt, very little, that is, over each cookie as soon as you drizzle the caramel so it sticks in the caramel.

Line your storage container for the cookies with parchment paper and each layer in between including the top because the cookies will stick to each other and the lid if you don't.

These cookies filled my container to the top in layers.

I had to place a sheet of parchment over the top of my cookies before placing the lid on top otherwise they would have stuck to my lid. Use your own judgement for your storage.