Salted Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

I have a working oven again! A week without oven usage just about killed me. We had a bit of an incident last weekend.

While preheating the oven last Saturday night, my oven heating element burned through. It was a bright fiery orb. Sort of like having the sun in your oven. So bright that after the flame subsided we had spots in front of our eyes.

Not to worry, there were no casualties. I was just forced to saute a pan full of veggies instead of oven roast a pan full.

Tim ordered a new heating element which came a couple of days ago and I was able to make cookies! Lucky for you because these are pretty yummy.

Salted caramel has been the specialty flavor combination trend of the minute for the past 2629745+ minutes or so. I enjoy salted caramels but haven’t really made much that is salted caramel flavor.

I’ve been really feeling the oatmeal lately. That’s most of the time actually. So to combine my love of oatmeal and my need to use up a bag of caramel baking bits, I made these cookies. Something about oatmeal is so homey and comforting. A nice steaming bowl in the morning just makes you feel warm and soothed. An oatmeal cookie has the same effect on me. (Sans raisins, of course.)

These are the caramel bits I used. You can find them in the baking aisle. I will warn you they are awful if you eat them straight out of the bag. They are waxy and not delicious. But once you bake them they are yummy. The magic of the oven.

Isn’t the melted caramel peeking out of the cookie pretty?

Did you catch the Super Bowl? Or did you, like me, only catch the Puppy Bowl? I need Sally the Dachshund/Basset mix to be mine. She was precious! I just want to kiss her little face!?

Salted Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 1/2 cups oatmeal

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

11 oz bag Kraft Caramel Baking Bits

salt for sprinkling on top of cookies before baking

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs & vanilla and mix to combine.

Add flour, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Mix until well combined and then add the caramel bits and fold into dough.

Scoop by 1 oz scoop (or rounded tablespoonful) onto a lined baking sheet. Grind a tiny bit of salt on top of each dough ball. Bake for 12 minutes. Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.