Great Harvest Salted Caramel Cookies

Some friends and I went to Burlington to attend a cooking class a few days ago (more about that in my next post), and we had a little time before it began, so we made the rounds of some of our favorite "foodie" haunts. One stop is always Great Harvest Bakery, where I like to pick up a loaf of Dakota bread (makes great toast). On a whim, I grabbed one their salted caramel cookies from a basket on the counter. It was a ginormous, thin, soft--almost to the point of not holding together--and chewy oatmeal cookie packaged in a little brown paper sack. SO DELICIOUS! The only thing I didn't care for was the coarse salt that was sprinkled on top. It made for an interesting texture, but it also made it too salty.  Naturally, I had to come home and try to replicate my new favorite cookie, and I think I came very close, adapting a recipe that I found on Food.com.

Great Harvest Salted Caramel Oatmeal Cookies
(Source: adapted from food.com)

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups brown sugar, packed (might cut this to 1 3/4 cups next time)
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon milk (I used buttermilk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats, divided
1 11 oz. package Kraft Caramel Bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.

2. Cream together the brown sugar and butter until well combined.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

4. Mix in the molasses, milk and vanilla.

5. Take one cup of the rolled oats and grind them in a blender or food processor until it is the consistency of coarse flour.

6. Add the ground oats and the remaining cup of rolled oats to the butter mixture and mix well.

7. Now add the flour mixture and mix until combined.

8. Stir in the caramel bits  until evenly distributed throughout the dough.

9. Using a 1/4 cup scoop (my standard size ice cream scoop works well for this) or a measuring cup, scoop the dough onto ungreased cookie sheets 3 inches apart.

10. Bake for 12-13 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown.

11. Remove from oven and cool two minutes on cookie sheets.

12. Remove from cookie sheets to cool completely on racks.