Chocolate Caramel Treasures and Bailie is a Healthy Cook-Hooray!!!

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Hi everyone. I am writing from a satellite Take Back the Kitchen location, Boulder, Colorado. My oldest daughter and I are visiting my niece, Bailie who is studying out here.

Where do I begin with the pride? Bailie, who lived with us for 3 years when she was 16, who knew nothing about hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup and LOVED Taco Bell and Twizzlers, is now making healthy dinners with her friends for us, with beets, olive oil chicken and roasted fingerling potatoes (she still eats Twizzlers). Oh, the joy! If that weren’t enough, she wanted me to show her how to make green shakes but did not have a blender.

How could the girl make green shakes without a blender?! We quickly went to Target and got her a Waring Pro commercial model. I showed her a technique for easing up the green shake process that my friend Julie told me she did: Separating the fruits and greens into individual baggies for each day. We spent about 10 minutes putting these packets together and Bailie is very excited about the ease with which she can blend up these health packed elixirs.

Now that Bailie will be all healthed up with the shakes, she will be able to indulge once in a while with the incredible cookies that my daughter made for us while we were here. We got the recipe from The Cookie Party Cookbook by Robin Olson and boy will you be happy we are sharing this cookie recipe with you! Keep up the good work , Bailie!

Chocolate Caramel Treasures:

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts ( we didn’t use nuts)

for Caramel Filling
10 plain caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons heavy cream

for Chocolate Drizzle
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened) finely chopped

Directions

1. Beat together butter, sugar, egg, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer until blended well OR just mix with your hands like my daughter did. Sift in flour, cocoa, and salt and beat on low speed until mixture forms a dough-or mix with your hands. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F.

3. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls, then roll in nuts to coat if you are using them. Arrange balls, as coated, 1 1/2 inches apart on greased baking sheets and press your thumb into center of balls to flatten, leaving a depression. Bake in batches in middle of oven until puffed slightly but centers are soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press centers of cookies again (we used handle end of a wooden spoon). Transfer to racks to cool.

Make filling while cookies cool

Heat caramels and cream in a small saucepan over moderately low heat OR in a microwave like we did, stirring occasionally, until melted and mixture is smooth. Spoon into centers of cookies and cool completely.

Make chocolate drizzle one hour before serving

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, OR melt in a microwave, stirring until smooth. Cool to warm and pour into a heavy-duty sealable plastic bag. Seal bag and snip 1 corner to form a small hole. Drizzle chocolate over the cookies and let stand until set, about 30 minutes. Makes about 2 and a half dozen.

See Bailie with her friends!

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