Salted Caramel Chocolate Cookies

I meant to post these yesterday and time just got away from me. Michael has had a fever (which has not been pleasant) but it finally seems to be going away. If you could see what he's doing right now, you certainly wouldn't believe me when I told you 24 hours ago he was moping around the house refusing to eat much of anything.

I have, honestly, never tried salted caramel anything. But the idea sounded so delicious, and I was craving something chocolate, that I just knew I had to make some cookies. So if these don't resemble any "real" salted caramel tasting thing, then I am sorry. They are, in my opinion, completely delicious.

Ingredients:

- 4 oz semi sweet or unsweetened chocolate bar (I used Baker's)
- 3/4 C butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1/4 C sugar
- 2 C all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 3/4 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 C Kraft caramel bits (if you can't find these, you can use caramel squares just chop them up)
Course Sea Salt, for sprinkling

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 and spray your cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
- Follow the instructions on your chocolate to melt it, either on the stove or in a large bowl in the microwave.
- Beat your butter, egg, and vanilla into the chocolate. Next add your sugars.
- Mix in your dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and sea salt).
- Fold in your chocolate chips and caramel bits.

- Using a cookie scooper (or around 2 tsp of dough), drop on to the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with your course sea salt.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until edges are slightly darker.
*Note: The caramel can, and most likely will in some, ooze out of the sides. If you want to do all to prevent this, make sure there aren't any caramel bits on the outside. If you have to use extra dough for each cookie to make this so, I'd say it's worth it. My first batch was quite a mess!*

Based on the recipe from Food.com.