Caramel Apple Cookies

So I haven't posted the past few days because it was the end of finals, I had to pack, then travel home. But since I'm home, things are going to be getting fancier. These cinnamon apple-flavored cookies with gooey caramel centers were slightly tricky at the very end but both my mom and I enjoyed the end result a lot (read: ate several straight from the oven, almost burning our mouths). This is high praise for a non-chocolate dessert in my house. My experience made 35 cookies.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)- softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original drink mix (10 packets near hot chocolate mix)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (14 oz) bag of Kraft chewy caramels

Supplies:

• small bowl
• regular eating spoon
• 1-cup cup
• 1 teaspoon spoon
• 1/2 teaspoon spoon
• parchment paper
• baking sheet
• electric mixer or large bowl/spoon/endurance

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.
3. In mixer bowl, cream butter, sugar, salt, and all 10 drink mix packs. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
4. Add vanilla, then gradually add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
5. Scoop out cookie dough and roll into a ball about the size of a walnut. I thought this seemed rather large but be generous. It works better to contain the caramel.
6. Take an unwrapped caramel and press it into the dough ball. Wrap the dough around until the caramel is covered. Place about three inches apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment. Note: make sure there is plenty of dough under the caramel so it doesn't leak out all over the parchment.
7. Bake 11-14 minutes or until very lightly browned. The cookie should start to feel crispy on the outside but the center may not look done. This is okay. Just let them cool until the edges have stabilized. Then here comes the tricky part.
8. Place a second sheet of parchment on top of the cookies, large enough that you can hold the ends while holding the pan. In one swift motion, flip the pan so the cookies land face down on the new parchment. Remove the pan and slowly peel away the old parchment. The caramel will stick in some places, but just be careful and try to disturb the cookies as little as possible. It will harden back together anyway so don't worry too much.
9. Let cool the rest of the way upside down. This prevents all the caramel from escaping while they cool. Alternatively eat them before the caramel can escape, but warning, gooey caramel is extremely hot. I warned you. No suing me like McDonalds. 

Safer eating: at room temperature or microwaved briefly. Once they are totally cool, you can flip them back over and put them on a plate to store or serve.

Cookies just from the oven. Note that they don't really look browned on the edges like cookies traditionally do:

 These are the cookies cooling after I flipped them. I had to slide them together to make room for the next pan, they weren't this close on the pan. I usually only fit 7-8 per pan:

 Before I tried the flip technique, I followed the recipe and tried flipping each cookie over by hand. This was not as successful, as you can see by the mess below:

 Thank you to The Girl Who Ate Everything blog for the original recipe.