I pretty much eat sugar on a regular basis, but I’ll admit to rarely liking the taste of what sweet confection I’m shoving into my mouth. Usually I’m reaching for the sugar-laden goodies when I’m bored, depressed, or just want to be munching on something. M&M’s are my weakness, not because of the way they taste, but because of the crunch, not to mention they come in holiday colors, which I’m a total sucker for. So when I eat a cookie, and my mouth and my brain both say, “Hot Damn,” you know that’s got to be one amazing cookie. This cookie is sweet, a tad bit salty, and has just the right amount of crunch to keep me interested. The only thing that could maybe perhaps make it better would be to crumble pretzels on top of the caramel, before topping it with the Mini Cadbury Eggs; after all, I’m a girl who’s all about the crunch factor, and pretzels make anything better as far as I’m concerned!
Ingredients:
Cookie:
- 1 1/2 Cups Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
- 2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar, Packed
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla
- 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 Cups Shredded Sweetened Coconut
Caramel:
- 1 (5.5-oz.) Bag Werther’s Original Chewy Caramels
- 3 Tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream
Decoration:
- 1 1/2 (10-oz.) Bags Cadbury Mini Eggs
Directions:
Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter, sugars, and salt on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add vanilla; mix for 1 minute.
- Add flour one cup at a time on low speed; mix until flour is just incorporated.
- Place coconut on a large plate.
- Roll 1 1/4-inch balls of dough between the palms of your hands, and then roll in the shredded coconut. You will need to gently press the coconut into the dough with your fingers and palms.
- Place the coated balls on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet and make a well in each cookie with your thumb.
- Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom edges.
- After removing the cookies from the oven, use the back of a spoon to reinforce the well in each cookie.
- Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, before removing to a cooling rack to cool.
Caramel:
- Unwrap the caramels and place in a medium saucepan with the cream, over medium-low heat.
- Stirring constantly, cook the mixture until the caramels have completely melted; remove from heat.
- Working quickly, fill the well of each cookie using a teaspoon.
Decoration:
- Place 3 Cadbury Mini Eggs into each cookies caramel filled center.
Suggestions:
- I used Baker Josef’s Shredded Sweetened Coconut from Trader Joe’s, which is less sweet than most commercial brands of sweetened coconut, and also has a lower moisture content. You may use more or less than the amount of coconut I suggested, depending on how heavily you coat each cookie dough ball. If the shreds of coconut are too long to work with, work them between your fingers a bit before use, or chop them with a sharp kitchen knife.
- You will definitely have to reheat the caramel filling several times while filling the cookies, due to the fact that caramel seizes up so fast when not over direct heat. Just place the saucepan back on medium-low heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute, and it should come back to a consistency that will allow you to fill the cookies.
- You will not require a huge amount of caramel in the well of each cookie; just enough to coat the bottom of the well you created with your thumb. When you place the chocolate eggs into the caramel filling it will displace the caramel significantly, which may cause the caramel to overflow if you have added too much.
- I’m sorry this recipe will leave you with a half of a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs leftover from it; you’re just going to have to find a way to get rid of them. Whatever will you do with them?
Improvements:
- Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on the top of each cookie’s caramel filling, before topping with the Cadbury Mini Eggs.
- Try using different types of candy eggs for decoration. M&M’s have a speckled milk chocolate egg version for Easter, which would be perfect.
- Go ahead and crumble some pretzel bits on top of that caramel, what could it hurt?
Birds Nest Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 Cups Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
- 2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar, Packed
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla
- 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 Cups Shredded Sweetened Coconut
- 1 (5.5-oz.) Bag Werther's Original Chewy Caramels
- 3 Tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 1/2 (10-oz.) Bags Cadbury Mini Eggs
Cookies:
Caramel:
Decoration:
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter, sugars, and salt on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add vanilla; mix for 1 minute.
- Add flour one cup at a time on low speed; mix until flour is just incorporated.
- Place coconut on a large plate.
- Roll 1 1/4-inch balls of dough between the palms of your hands, and then roll in the shredded coconut. You will need to gently press the coconut into the dough with your fingers and palms.
- Place the coated balls on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet and make a well in each cookie with your thumb.
- Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom edges.
- After removing the cookies from the oven, use the back of a spoon to reinforce the well in each cookie.
- Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, before removing to a cooling rack to cool.
- Unwrap the caramels and place in a medium saucepan with the cream, over medium-low heat.
- Stirring constantly, cook the mixture until the caramels have completely melted; remove from heat.
- Working quickly, fill the well of each cookie using a teaspoon.
- Place 3 Cadbury Mini Eggs into each cookies caramel filled center.
Cookies:
Caramel:
Decoration:
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ORIGINALLY POSTED 04/18/2014
