I was in the grocery store and I discovered that Kraft made their caramels in an add-in size!  I have used their traditional square caramels in the past to make Easy Salted Chocoate Caramels, but now a whole other world of possibilities had opened up for me; I could add caramels to cookies!

I was trying to decide the perfect cookie to bake with these tiny bites of awesomeness, so I went to my pantry.  I could use chocolate chips, as I am sure that a chocolate caramel cookie would be pretty amazing, but I thought I could create something a bit different, and then it hit me, pecans! 

Pecans and caramels now that would be delicious.  If I added chocolate, pecans and caramels, it would create a turtle-type cookie.  Now we were talking.  When I went to grab some pecans, I was struck with the unfortunate discovery that we were out.  I guess we enjoy our Pecan Almond Butter a bit too much if we had gone through all our pecans already. 😦  Even though we didn’t have any pecans, we did have a large bag of raw almonds.  Now I was in business.

I opted to not add the chocolate chips, as I do want to bake a pecan, chocolate and caramel cookie, and I figured if I added the chocolate to the caramel and almond cookie, it wouldn’t be different enough to share with you (so make note, the turtle cookie will eventually be posted 🙂 ).

I only had whole almonds, so I put them in a large zip-lock bag and broke them up with my rolling pin.  I could have pulled out the food processor, but I was in too much of a hurry to bake, and besides, I didn’t have a lot of extra dishes to wash by using the rolling pin 😉

I went to my favourite cookie base recipe.  Of course, it has rolled oats.

So, I mixed in my broken almonds and perfect cookie size caramels into my go-to cookie base and came out with a winning combination!  These cookies were pale in colour (compared to any cookie made with chocolate chips) and they were absolutely delightful with a cup of hot tea.  (Just incase you were wondering, the raw cookie dough was also quite tasty 😉 )

When I make them again, I think I will roast my almonds first, to give them a little more depth of flavour, but even with the raw almonds, these were a pretty great cookie.

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Adapted from:
Mrs. Fields Best Cookie Book Ever! – Pecan Supremes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup softened butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup roughly chopped almonds
• 1 cup caramel pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and rolled oats.  Mix well with wire whisk and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, blend sugars.  Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste.  Scrape down sides of bowl, then add eggs and vanilla.  Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add in the flour mixture, almonds and caramels.  Blend at low speed until just combined.  Do not overmix.
5. Drop dough by tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 1 1/2 inches apart.  Bake for 18-20 minutes.  Transfer cookes to a cool, flat surface.
6. Brew a cup of tea while you wait for these to cool and then sit back and enjoy!