Yeah, thats right. Salted Caramel AND Snickerdoodle AND apple all in one beautifully concocted dessert. I don’t want to say I’m a genius but I think we’re all thinking the same thing here. Rebecca, you genius cookie maker you.  I bought some granny smith apples yesterday when I went grocery shopping and was sitting around this morning trying to figure out how to make something different with them. I’m just not a pie girl. It’s too much work, not enough ROI. Also, how am I going to serve pie at work Monday morning? Last year I had made a salted caramel apple crumb bar from TwoPeasandTheirPod which was great, but I didn’t want to repeat recipes. So I started thinking of other cookies I’ve made and liked. Snickerdoodles are such an easy cookie and always a crowd pleaser. I figure anything with cinnamon sugar would mix well with apples. So I decided to make a double batch of Snickerdoodles, bake half as the crust and use the other half as the topping, and fill the inside with cinnamon sugar apples. Bam. I didn’t know how they would turn out, but let’s just say I usually eat one bite of the tester cookie … and I did not share any of it this time.

Ingredients:

Snickerdoodle Dough

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 egg
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Apple filling:

• 5 Granny Smith apples
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salted Caramel

• 20 kraft caramels, unwrapped
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Step 2: Add in dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Chill the dough for a bit while you prepare the apples.

Step 3: Evenly dice up the apples into about 1/4 inch chunks and put in a large bowl. Top with sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and corn starch and stir until evenly coated.

Step 4: Grease a 13×9 inch glass baking dish with non-stick spray. Put half of the Snickerdoodle dough and evenly press in the bottom of the dish. Bake at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes and then take out of the oven.

Step 5: Evenly spread the cinnamon apples on top of the cookie dough. Take the remaining cookie dough and crumble it on top of the apples as evenly as possible. You won’t cover the apples completely.

Step 6: Bake at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. I took mine out at 35 when the topping was golden brown. Leave them to cool.

Step 7: To make the caramel sauce, in a saucepan over medium heat put the caramels and heavy cream and continually whisk until it is melted and just bubbling. Add in the salt and remove from the heat. You can either place the caramel on top of all of the bars, or wait until you serve them and top them individually.

AH. MAZE. ING. amazing. Literally. I cannot get over the taste of these. The snickerdoodles are soft and chewy but with the caramel and apple are a perfect combination in every bite. I think these will not last past 9am tomorrow morning. I would highly recommend trying this recipe if you have some extra apples on hand.

The rain today has made for a perfect day to break in the  new couches and have a Breaking Bad marathon. And let’s all take a moment to acknowledge its only 3pm and I’ve written two blog posts today. I think I used up all my witty stories in the earlier post today. Highlights of this weekend include some quality time with Netflix and also my second competitive tennis match yesterday which everyone on my team won their matches yesterday which was awesome. As always, any suggestions for cookie ideas – keep them coming my way. I am thinking the next few weeks will be pumpkin and halloween candy themed.

Happy Sunday.