Scrumptious Heath Cookies

Have you ever set out to make something and then have it turn out entirely different from what you imagined, but a million times better?  That is what happened with this recipe.  I had my very own Ruth Wakefield moment.  Who is Ruth Wakefield you ask?  She was the wife of the owner of the Toll House Inn.  One day she set out to make chocolate cookies and chopped up chocolate into small pieces, thinking it would melt into the batter when cooked.  She was surprised to find that the chips stayed intact after baking and the chocolate chip cookie was born (and the Toll House empire).

Look at the melted caramel in there... delicious!

I had been thinking about these cookies that we get delivered to our office from a company we work with from time to time.  They are the best cookies I have ever had.  Super chocolately and soft and like what you would expect from grandma's kitchen.  So I looked at what made those cookies so good.  Basically I came up with one thing: chocolate shavings in the batter.

This is basically the amount I would have eaten in one serving if I could

I have been playing in my mind with a recipe for salted caramel and chocolate chip cookies.  With the simple caramels I made a few weeks ago, I had thought I could make those into salted caramels.  However when I made them, they were too rich and heavy for a salted caramel, so instead I just left them as is and chopped them super finely into chocolate chip sized pieces.  I grated a few blocks of baking chocolate squares and added that to the batter.  I had thought that they would keep their integrity in the batter, opposite of what Ruth Wakefield expected in her cookies.  And just like Ruth, I was surprised to find out that things did not happen as I anticipated.  The shavings melted into the batter.


The result was glorious.

The cookies had a distinctive chocolate flavor to the batter, but not overpowering.  The caramel and chocolate chips came together in the cookie to create a rich buttery and chocolatey flavor, very similar to the toffee flavor of a Heath Bar.


These cookies are heaven on a plate.  Go make some right now.  You will be very glad you did.


Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely grated semi sweet bakers squares
• 1 package milk chocolate chips (11.5 gram size bag)
• 1/2 cup diced simple caramel candies (cute them about the same size as the chocolate chips)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

a box grater makes shaving the chocolate easy.  Even easier would be if you had a microplane

Combine the sugars, egg and butter using an electric handmixer.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt.  Combine the dry mixture with the wet in three batches, fully mixing between each addition.

Once fully incorporated, mix in the grated chocolate, followed by the caramel pieces and the chocolate chips.

Roll into one inch balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Bake for 8-10 minutes and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

absolutely delicious!

Enjoy!

Source: a Tort(e) original recipe