We love apples. Adam loves Honey Crisp apples and I have to buy him at least 5 every week at the store. They really are delicious but he goes over the top. I love apples, too. I especially love baking with them and I found this recipe for Apple Cider Caramel Cookies. (I just realized I mis-spelled caramel on the picture, but we are going to ignore it or else it will take 2 more days to get this blog out. Let's keep rolling.) While there are no actual apples in the cookie, just apple cider mix, they are still really tasty!
Apple Cider Caramel Cookies
from Scrambled Hen Fruit Blog
1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets (I found this in my grocery store near the hot chocolate mixes.)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups all purpose flour
1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment. (You really need the parchment!)
- In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
- With your mixer (or an energetic spoon) cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.
- Refrigerate for about an hour. (If you're really impatient you don't have to do this, but it makes it so much easier to work with.)
- When you are ready to bake, unwrap your caramels.
- Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut. (I used a rounded cookie scoop-full. My scoop holds about a Tablespoon.)
- Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets 2 inches apart.
- Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Please don't over-bake! Once the cookies are done, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment or on a rack.) If you forget about them and they cool too much and stick to your parchment, put them into the freezer for a few minutes and they'll pop right off.
- Yield: about 4 dozen, depending on how large you make your cookies (or how many caramels have been snitched out of your bag before you begin.) Store in an airtight container.
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| I had a bowl of honey crisp apples on the table where the girls were eating a snack. I went upstairs to put Kyle down for a nap and they had taken several bites out of every apple in the bowl. Lovely. |
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| Here are the girls playing in the corn. |
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| Aubrie took a stab at milking the cow |
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| Emilie had quite a day. They had a section where you can pay 2 bucks and let the kids play on playground equipment and with all kinds of toys. The girls spent a good 45 minutes in that section. Emilie had a blast peeking through the windows of the little house. But for her, it all went downhill from there... |
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| Loving us some goats. Hope we will have a new pet goat at Thanksgiving, Poppy. |
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| Riding the train! |
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| Here's Emilie on the tractor. Please note her knees. You can see a little bit of dirt on her leggings. She lost control of herself about 4 times while we were there. Each time she would get on all four and put her head down and cry. At one point she laid on her stomach while she was working out her frustration and had her whole face in the dirt. Adam and I walked away like we didn't know the child, letting her work it out, but the grandparents peeled her off the ground. |
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| The grandparents were here for the weekend to enjoy the pumpkin patch. |
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| Here is proof that Kyle was there, too. He likes to sleep. A LOT! So that is what he did the whole time. |
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| Sweet Emilie smelling the sunflowers. Sweet Emilie has taken up a new hobby. She likes to play with the home phone. One day I put on a cartoon and snuck upstairs to nurse Kyle and put him down for a nap. I had my cell phone with me and my mom called to tell me that Emilie just called her from the home phone. My mom asked, "Is this Aubrie?" And Emilie said, "No. Just Emi." and then managed to push the mute button and left it laying on the floor in the living room. My parents got a kick out of that. They don't believe me when I say I'm in control... |
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| Ah, and here are the sweet angels exhibiting their other hobby. Fighting. Holy moly those girls can start pushing and arguing with each other. We got Aubrie to walk away from this dispute to go pick out a pumpkin, but Emilie was once again man-down in the dirt. This is the last picture you'll see of her. She never did fully recover. |
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| Kyle opened his eyes! Loving him some pumpkins! |
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| Aubrie's prized pumpkin |
The girls have had a runny nose and cough lately and now Kyle has a cough and has been sleeping a lot. After talking to my lactation consultant, she convinced me to take him in to be listened to by the doctor. It was 4:15 and the appointment they had for me was 5. So I ran and threw on my nicest sweat pants (snicker and snort) and ran out the door. Adam met us there and we had him looked at. He weighed in at 14 lb, 6 oz and his lungs sounded fine. We're so thankful for good health. We ended up eating Taco Bell for dinner (yuck) and got home in time to run wild around the house before baths. I hope everyone else is staying healthy!
Love to all! Pin It Now!
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