Salted caramel and chocolate cookies

Salted caramel is a culinary magic made in heaven which has presidential approval (see Trivia below), yet strangely our obsession with it is relatively new. Since it became widely popular you can find it popping up in all kinds of recipes. Here is one of my favourites because they are combined in a cookie.

Makes around 16 cookies.

Ingredients

• 3¾ ounces / 105g Trex
• 8¾ ounces / 250g light brown muscovado sugar
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon of caramel flavouring
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 5 ounces / 140g plain flour
• 3½ ounces / 100g bread flour
• ¾ teaspoon of baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 5¼ ounces / 150g fudge, chopped into small pieces
• 5¼ ounces / 150g milk chocolate chunks
• Sea salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F (160°C / 320°F fan) and line 3 baking sheets with baking parchment.

In a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the Trex and sugar until smooth.

In a jug beat the egg with the vanilla and caramel before adding to the Trex and mix until well combined.

Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a large wooden spoon until combined.

Add the fudge and chocolate and stir well (see Tips below).

Make generous heaped tablespoon balls (if you weight them out they should be around 60g each) and place them a good distance apart on your baking sheets, no more than 6 to a sheet.

Sprinkle each dough ball with sea salt (you’ll need to press it into the dough).

Bake for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Tips

I find it easier to use my old favourite the latex glove when adding the fudge and chocolate!

Trivia

The recent obsession for salted caramel can be dated back to April 2008 when Haagen-Dazs introduced a reserve brand of salted caramel ice cream. Six months later, Starbucks cashed in by selling salted caramel hot chocolate. Then Wal-Mart introduced it into its own brand truffles. And when President-elect Barak Obama announced he was a fan of salted caramel (a version with dark chocolate coated in smoked sea salt by a Seattle candy-maker) everyone got in on the act. Salted caramel had long intrigued both French and America chefs but before 2008 it was one of those rare flavours only appreciated by an elite culinary niche.