I’ve recently moved into a new house and whilst I’ve made a loaf of bread, some brownies and banana bread, nothing makes me feel at home in a new kitchen like making a batch of cookies. This particular batch is based on my best ever chocolate chip cookies, which means browned butter and egg yolks for a fudgy texture. The flavours however took a very special turn in this batch. They have chocolate, of course, but also salted peanuts and caramel all together making for a very tasty cookie.

Before we start with the cookie dough we need to make the caramel. When thinking about how to get that caramel flavour into the cookies I thought about chopping up some chewy caramels but truth be told, I couldn’t be bothered to make any. Thankfully I remembered that in the past, when I used to make kitchen sink cookies, where my kitchen cupboards were raided for mix-ins, I used to add chunks of hard caramel instead. This caramel gives texture to the cookie plus it adds an intense caramel flavour with just a hint of bitterness which helps it stand up to the other ingredients without making the cookies too sweet.

Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 22

200g caster sugar
225g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
150g light brown sugar
2 large eggs 
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
350g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
300g dark chocolate (I used 66% wafers but a roughly chopped bar will also work)
125g roughly chopped salted peanuts
Flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

To make the caramel line a baking tray with either parchment paper or a silicon matt. Place the caster sugar into a saucepan set over medium heat and cook until the sugar has fully melted and the caramel is a deep brown colour, that of an old penny. Immediately pour it out onto the prepared baking tray, spreading out a little so thats it not too thick. Set aside for 30 minutes or until it hardens like glass.

To make the cookie dough place the butter into a saucepan and over low/medium heat cook until the butter has melted and then, stirring occasionally, cook until the butter has browned. At first the butter will bubble and splatter, this is the water cooking out from the fat, and then it will foam. When it foams stir the butter more frequently and look for signs the browning has happened. You should be able to smell the change, the aroma will become nutty and toasty. The milk solids will also turn a golden brown. Remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl and set aside for 10 minutes to cool. When browning the butter be careful as this process happens very quickly and if you don’t keep an eye on the pan the butter can go from perfectly browned to burnt in the matter of seconds. 

Once the butter has cooled add the sugars and using an electric mixer with the beater attached beat together for a couple minutes to combine. Add the eggs and yolks and beat on medium speed for about 3-4 minutes or until the mixture is pale. Add the vanilla and mix in briefly to combine. 

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add this mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed just until a dough if formed. Add the peanuts and chocolate. Take a wooden spoon and bash the caramel into little pieces a cm or two wide. Tip this into the bowl with the chocolate and peanuts and mix briefly until everything is evenly distributed. Refrigerate the dough for two hours.

Just a quick note on refrigeration, these cookies contain hard caramel and excessive refrigeration or freezing will cause issues, the caramel will start to liquify and so whilst I would normally encourage you to freeze the dough for future use, with these its more of a case of make, bake and share. 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan)

Once the dough is chilled form into cookies about 70g in size. One word of caution when shaping these is that the caramel can be a little sharp. You can roll these into balls, just be careful not to stab yourself with caramel, or you can use a cookie scoop so you don’t have to touch the dough itself. Place the cookies onto parchment lined baking trays, leaving plenty of space for spread (6 cookies per tray is good for regular sized baking trays). Sprinkle with a little salt, leave off of course if you prefer, and bake for about 14-16 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and just a touch paler in the middle. You may find when baking these that they come out of the oven an unusual shape and this is down to the caramel. When the cookies bake the caramel liquifies and sets again on cooling but the melting can mean it makes the cookies spread a little randomly. To correct this I take the cookies out a few minutes before they’re done baking and use large round cookie cutter to scoot them back into shape, and then I repeat this once the cookies are baked. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Kept in a sealed container the cookies will keep for 4 days.