Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies {Paleo, Gluten Free, Dairy Free}

Oh boy. I have been enjoying all of the holiday baking for sure! The other day I really wanted to make some cookies with my favorite Artisana Organics cashew butter but didn’t just want chocolate chip. I really wanted to add something super fun to them. Enter Sweet Apricity Paleo / AIP Caramels! You probably saw my 5 in 5 Holiday Favs video talking about their Paleo Caramel Pop ”Corn” — definitely one of the best products I have seen in a long time!

Sweet Apricity specializes in Paleo, AIP, Dairy Free caramel, caramel sauce and marshmallows. Their caramels remind me of my Grammy’s homemade caramels. She, my Grampa John’s mom, used to always have tasty homemade caramels every time we’d visit her, and I haven’t had a caramel in years because 1) they were never as good as Grammy’s and 2) I couldn’t eat them anyway because of the ingredients. Sweet Apricity’s Paleo Caramels are the next best thing to Grammy’s! PLUS - I can totally eat the ingredients, and, man, they are good in these cookies!

By the way, these cookies don’t have a ton of ingredients, but you know when you see a recipe that says “2 INGREDIENT COOKIES!” But that number doesn’t count the salt, vanilla, chocolate chips and also magic that goes into the cookies? So it’s really a 12 ingredient cookie when you’re done? Yeah, I hate that too. I listed everything out below and there are a few optional ingredients, too. Like I said, you don’t need a ton of ingredients to make these. Obviously you can omit the caramel and the chocolate and the crunchy sea salt on top and the collagen, too. They will just be plain cookies & that’s cool. But you do what works best for you, and I will just wish you happy baking along the way!

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INGREDIENTS

1 cup cashew butter

1 egg

1/2 cup coconut sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)*

2 scoops collagen peptides (optional)*

4 Sweet Apricity Caramels (optional)*

Real Salt Kosher Salt (optional)*

* These are all optional ingredients, though you will just have plain cookies and they won’t be a salted caramel chocolate chip flavor.

Directions:

Place 4 caramels in the fridge to firm up a bit before topping cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together except for caramel, chocolate chips and crunchy sea salt.

Mix in chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop (about 1.5 TB). Scoop cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheet and press down a bit to form a cookie.

Bake for 10 minutes.

While cookies are in the oven, remove caramels from the fridge. Using a knife, carefully cut caramels into small pieces (about the same size as the chocolate chips).

Press a few pieces of caramel into cookies while they are still hot. You don’t need to press too hard. Sprinkle with crunchy sea salt.

Allow to cool and enjoy with a glass of your favorite dairy free milk and don’t forget to save a few for Santa!