caramel...melts

i don't usually take photographs at an angle - that "artistic angle" so favored by food bloggers - but for some reason, the dead-on photos just don't look as good. something about the straight shooting suppresses the cragginess of these cookies.

so, caramel melts. this is what i discovered upon leaving a tupperware of ganache-topped caramels in the fridge, with no outer coating of chocolate, for over a year. possibly for two years - i've forgotten exactly when i put them in for that long, long hibernation. i think i expected them to keep the way that, miraculously, my most prized caramel sauce has kept for two years as i slowly consume it. (the original delicious caramel sauce got a boost of sugar syrup from spiced, baked apples, infused and reduced with tea, that rendered it positively spectacular.) alas, it was not so. beyond acquiring the aroma of the refrigerator - airtight container be damned - the caramels absorbed liquid from the ganache and melted into waxy sludge.

luckily, while cleaning the fridge recently, i found a slab of caramel from some other caramel experiment (i have yet to find a definitive caramel recipe that does not include corn syrup, but the one i've posted before is pretty good nonetheless). i cut myself a bit to taste, and it appeared to be in good enough working condition to include in these cookies. these cookies involve a rather soft dough, due to the inclusion of yogurt to provide some of the moisture, and i think that as they baked, the caramel sort of melted into the batter, producing a cookie that's crisp on the outside, soft on the inside (from the original dough itself), and gooey in the center. that is to say, these cookies are delicious and you should make them asap. as usual, they will taste better if you use good-quality cocoa and caramel.

salted chocolate-caramel cookies

1 1/4c flour

1/4t baking soda

1/2t salt

5T butter

7-8T cocoa

2/3c sugar

1/3c dark brown sugar

1/3c plain yogurt or sour cream

1t vanilla

~3-4oz soft caramel, rolled into 1/2"-diameter balls (dice, then squish the corners in until it resembles a sphere)

1. preheat the oven to 350F (i accidentally baked these at 375, and it was fine). in a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

2. melt the butter in the microwave in a medium bowl. sift the cocoa over it and mix until combined. add both sugars and mix until combined. add yogurt or sour cream, as well as the vanilla, and mix until combined. slowly mix in the dry ingredients with a spatula or a wooden spoon.

3. take a couple scant teaspoons of dough and form it evenly around a ball of caramel (i stick my thumb into a ball of dough and put the caramel into the ensuing hole). if your caramel balls are bigger than a few teaspoons of dough will cover (you want at least 1/4" of dough on the exterior of your caramel, estimating of course), then use as much dough as you need to make it work. place on a baking sheet about two inches apart and bake until the tops are slightly crackled, but before the caramel starts leaking out of the cookies - about 10 minutes or so. let cool at least 5 minutes - cookies will be very soft and will need to set up a little. transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

4. store in an airtight container and eat 'em within a few days for best flavor!

[makes 30-40 cookies]