Caramel Stuffed Macchiato Chocolate Chip Cookies

Where are my caramel macchiato fans at?! Super Dad and I will rarely order anything else when visiting our favorite local coffee shops. So when we were trying to come up with the perfect cookie flavor for National Cookie Day, I had to try these caramel stuffed macchiato chocolate chip cookies. And let me tell you, they came out SO good… the third time I made them!

I found the initial, caramel macchiato thumbprint recipe on the Betty Crocker website, though I did change it a bit. Honestly, the first two batches were a disaster. I couldn’t quite figure out how to incorporate the caramel without making a HUGE mess or making our fingers super sticky. The first time, I tried the thumbprint on top of the cookie and it kind of melted all over the place. The second time, I drizzled it all over the top of each cookie and they were really hard to handle. While they were yummy, our hands were super sticky.

My Nana always told me if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. So, for the third batch, I decided to try stuffed cookies. Placing the caramel inside each ball of dough seemed to do the trick (though there were a few that fell out of the bottom once they were cooked, so make sure that the caramel is in the center of each dough ball, and have the dough covering the caramel completely, all around. I found that setting the piece in the center and then rolling the dough around it, worked well.

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5 from 17 votes

Caramel Stuffed Macchiato Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you love caramel macchiatos, you will absolutely love the cookie version! We took chocolate chip and espresso cookies and stuffed them with caramel.

Course: Dessert

Keyword: cookies

Ingredients

• 1 pouch sugar cookie mix
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• ½ cup butter melted
• 3 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1 tbsp hot water
• 1 bag chocolate chips semi-sweet or dark
• 14 oz bag caramels

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°
• In a mixing bowl, add hot water and espresso powder. Powder should dissolve right away.
• Add cookie mix, flour, vanilla, egg and butter and mix until combined.
• Add chocolate chips and hand stir until well distributed.
• Unwrap caramels and cut them in half.
• Shape dough into 1in balls with one or two pieces of caramel in the center of each dough ball.
• Place dough balls into the freezer for 5 minutes.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes and let cool for 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks and allow to fully cool.

My kids were honestly unsure about how they were going to feel about these cookies. I think the word “espresso” freaked them out a bit. They were sure they were going to taste like coffee (a flavor that they aren’t quite into at their ages, though I was sneaking sips of my Nana’s iced coffee since I was much younger than them).

Although they were messy, they really loved the first two batches. Truth is, the espresso flavor isn’t as strong as you might think (though you can make it stronger by adding more espresso powder).

The stuffed caramel batch was their absolute favorite. They went back for seconds and even thirds. They were pretty much gone within an hour so they’ve already requested that I make one more batch this weekend. How can I say no to that request? Plus, Super Dad is really looking forward to dunking one into his weekend caramel macchiato! YUM!

If you plan on making these or any of our other recipes, I’d love to hear how they turned out. If you have any other suggestions for how to incorporate the caramel, share it! I’m all for trying new options that I missed!

XOXO