Salted Caramel Choc Drop Cookies

These are the ultimate indulgent cookie!  I had been looking at recipes for salted caramel cookie bites and they looked delish so was going to whip some up for visitors, as well as these muffins (with pecans) because I was craving them.  Then I realised what the time was and as it was getting on in the evening I decided I was only going to have time/energy to make one thing, so I turned to my friend google and looked for a recipe (or two or three) that suited the ingredients I wanted to use.  In typical BMTB fashion I adapted a couple of recipes to make these fantastic cookies!  My only gripe is that I made the cookies a little too big which meant they looked a little ugly but hey, they tasted AMAZING!

Ingredients:
200 grams butter, melted
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs
2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup milk chocolate drops
¾ cup dark chocolate drops
¾ cups roughly chopped pecans
1 ¼ cup caramel chunks*, chopped into chunks and sprinkled with salt
Sea salt
* I didn’t find any plain caramels on my trip to the supermarket so I bought a bag of Jersey Caramels and cut the caramel off either side of the creamy centre and diced it into quarters.

Method:
Place your melted butter in a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), add both sugars and mix until combined.  Add the salt and vanilla, mix again.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix on a low speed to combine.  Add in chocolate, pecans and 1 cup of your caramel chunks, fold so that all the deliciousness is distributed evenly into your cookie dough.
Scoop out two tablespoons of dough at a time and combine (if you have an ice cream scoop I recommend using it as it will help keep all your cookies a uniform size).  Place on a lined baking tray, leaving at least 3cm between each ball.
Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to firm up and reduce spread when they go into the oven.
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
After your cookie dough balls have firmed up, remove from the oven and place 2-4 pieces of your remaining caramel chunks on the top of each cookie.
Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden all over.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  While they are still hot and on the baking tray sprinkle each cookie with sea salt.

Do yourself a favour and make these yourself, they are incredible! I am going to have to stop myself from making them again in the near future as I can see them becoming addictive!