caramel stuffed red velvet cookies

I wanted to make Jake something unique and special for Valentine’s Day last week. Red Velvet Cupcakes are his favorite dessert so I wanted to do a little twist to that, and turn them into cookies instead. I got the idea to stuff them with caramel because last year for his birthday, I forgot to put the caramel sauce in the middle of his giant caramel cupcake… and he did not let me forget it. Caramel stuffed cookies just sounded like an all around awesome idea and this time I wouldn’t forget the caramel!

I used a sugar cookie recipe as my base and added cream cheese to make them more “cake-like” and then added a red-cocoa paste for the coloring and slight chocolate flavor.

The dough came together pretty easily. I also loved how it was a deep, rich red.

I used Rolo’s sliced in half for most of the cookies as well as one sliced up “Simply Caramel” Milky Way bar. If you use the Milky Way bar, it will be a richer, sweeter flavor since there’s a lot more caramel going into the cookie. Using half a Rolo gives you just enough caramel to enrich the cookie without overdoing it. I kind of liked both – just depends on how much caramel you want stuffed into your cookies.

I used a medium ice cream scoop to measure out my balls of dough so it would be even. Then I stuffed a piece of candy into the middle.

Fully enclose the candy and viola, you’re done and ready to bake!

These bake for about 14 minutes at 375 degrees. They do not spread out very much.

I added mini semi-sweet chips to my cookies as well, just for a little extra bit of chocolate in the cookies.

They really tasted a lot like red velvet cake… but in a small, cookie form!

You don’t need to wait until Valentine’s Day to make these and show your love.

Caramel Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies
(Adapted from King Arthur Flour’s Sugar Cookies)

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
½ bottle red food coloring
½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 packages of Rolo’s / slice Rolo’s in half

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another small container, mix together the cocoa powder and red food coloring until it forms a red paste. Set aside. Cut Rolo’s in half.

Cream together butter, sugar and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla extract and almond extract. Add red cocoa pasta to cream together until fully incorporated.

Gradually add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients in three parts, until the dough comes together.

Use a medium sized ice cream scoop to measure out a ball of dough. Press a half slice of Rolo candy into the middle and wrap the dough around it, until the candy is completely sealed.

Place on a cookie sheet with a silpat mat (or, lightly grease a cookie sheet) about 1 inch or so apart. The cookies will not spread very much!

Bake at 375 degrees for 14 minutes or until lightly browned.