Ghirardelli has outdone themselves with their new caramel baking chips! They’re the perfect addition for these sweet and salty Gluten Free Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies.
ME BEFORE THE RECIPE…
Oh hi there. How was your Thanksgiving?! Yeah, I know Thanksgiving is over. It has been for a while, or so I think. I don’t really know. I’m living in a delusional state right now of sickness and exhaustion. I’m lucky to even be typing coherent sentences…if they are even coherent…who knows…
You know how when life gets crazy chaotic and busy, your body goes into hyper-drive and you feel like a superhero smashing each day’s chores into oblivion??? And you think, “Look at me! I’m UNSTOPPABLE!!!” You know that feeling???
Oh wait, then your life goes back to normal and your body has a second to breathe. And while it’s taking a brief moment to breathe, it realizes something. CRASH!!!! All the energy is suddenly gone. Nothing left. EMPTY.
Then that superhuman body of yours that powered you through the chaos instantly betrays you and becomes your worst enemy. That’s about where I’m at right now. I’ve trudged through the body aches, the chills, the headaches, and the fevers. Now I’m just sittin’ pretty here with the chest pain, coughing, and fatigue.
It’s all good, though. I have a plan. It’s called “Pretend Like You’re Not Sick Until You’re Really Not Anymore.” It’s a great plan. 100% effective. And the best part is, not only do you fool yourself into thinking you’re fine, but you fool everyone else around you too, to the point that they expect just as much from you as if you were perfectly healthy. Okay, so maybe this approach does need a little tweaking.
Sickness aside, Thanksgiving was a blast. I enjoyed every minute of having my family visit. Well, every minute besides the 10 extra minutes I decided to cook my Thanksgiving Day pork. Those minutes were terrible. Ruined my whole day. Seriously, what wanna be food blogger cooks their family’s main attraction to smithereens??? Oh, don’t worry, that would be me. I guess it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t perfect either, and perfect was what I was going for. Ugh.
But everything else was spot on and delicious! We had stuffing and cranberry sauce and roasted veggies and pies and pies and MORE PIES! Well, the reason we had more and more pies was because I decided to drop half of the first pumpkin pie filling all over the floor. So naturally I had to make another batch, which ended up providing enough filling for a pie AND a 9X13 pan of pumpkin bars. Oh, and did I mention the razzleberry crumb pie??? Yum!
I swear I fed my family equal amounts of sweets as I did savory foods this past week. From the moment they arrived to the moment the last person left, I had freshly made banana bread and homemade cookies sitting out for grabs. And boy did they grab and grab and GRAB!
HERE COMES THE RECIPE…
Now that ALL my cookies are gone, and it’s been a few days since I’ve had any sweets, I feel justified in whipping up another batch of cookies. My poor sick body is just begging for something indulgent and sweet. I’m pretty sure cookies are equivalent to medicine, so it’s a must that I make some. And you know what cookies I’m dying to make?! I’ll tell you…
Gluten Free Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!
Just feast your eyes on these babies! They are downright delicious. You know how some people are chocolate fans and some people are caramel fans? Well, why choose? Really, says who you have to pick just one. I make my own rules and I say enjoy them both.
So Ghirardelli makes these new baking morsels that are sea salt caramel flavored. They are decadent! Hershey’s also has a version of sea salt baking morsels that are a close match. Either brand baking chips will work perfectly for these cookies.
These cookies are your basic, but NOT basic, soft yet chewy, homemade chocolate chip cookies with a punch of sweet and salty caramel. In my opinion, it adds a little fall to your ordinary chocolate chip cookie because fall is all about caramel, right? That’s what I choose to believe.
And you know what? You can’t go wrong with baking up some classic chocolate chip cookies for neighbor goodies. There’s a reason it’s the most popular cookie out there. People love them! So just add in the caramel chips for an unexpected surprise and you’ve got yourself a goodie plate of gold!
These cookies can be baked ahead of time and then frozen for up to 3 months which means fabulous, fresh cookies any time of any day. That’s a win! You could also opt to freeze the dough in balls and then throw them in the oven for an instant freshly baked cookie. Just add about 2 minutes to the bake time to achieve the perfect doneness.
Oh man, all this talk about cookies really has me salivating. I’m not even kidding when I tell you it’s time to bake another batch of cookies. I will bet you all the money that I have a few dozen of these sitting on my counter top tomorrow afternoon. Ain’t nothing getting in my way. Not even bronchitis! Okay, maybe bronchitis would pose a slight setback in the kitchen, so let’s hope I don’t get that sick. Thanks.
Well, hope your Thanksgiving was as fabulous as mine and you’re not too burned out of sweets. Because really, I’m telling you, prepare to be amazed. Or at least prepare to be addicted because that’s what these sea salt caramel cookies are gonna do to you.
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY…
- Gluten Free Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies
- Gluten Free Cinnamon Spiced Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten Free Browned Butter Monster Cookies
- Gluten Free Salted Caramel Cupcakes
- 1½ sticks salted sweet cream butter, melted and cooled to touch
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons Bob's Red Mill 1:1 baking flour
- 1 cup Ghirardelli caramel flavored baking chips
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, melt butter for 45 seconds in the microwave. Stir until completely melted. Once butter is cooled to touch, add brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined, scraping down the sides as needed.
- In a smaller bowl, sift together salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and Bob's Red Mill 1:1 baking flour. Add to wet ingredients and mix until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl.
- With a wooden spoon, spatula, or with your beaters on low, mix in caramel chips and chocolate chips.
- Scoop rounded tablespoon size balls of dough 2" apart on cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middle looks almost set.
- Remove cookies from oven and gently slide parchment paper with cookies onto a cooling rack. Let cookies completely cool before eating
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
I called the company and the caramel flavored baking chips are not gluten free! Where did you get your information for that? I want to make them for my daughter who has Celiac Disease. Thanks
Thank you for pointing that out Lori. It’s always good to be extra diligent in being gluten free. Although Ghirardelli’s caramel flavored baking chips are not designated “gluten free” on the package, there are no ingredients which contain gluten. Ghirardelli is unable to label them as such just because their factories don’t undergo the official gluten testing like some other companies do. Unless you are worried about cross contamination in the factory, then you should be fine to use them. We haven’t had any issues with accidentally ingesting any gluten from using these products.
However, if you are worried, Hershey’s sea salt caramel baking chips are designated gluten free on the packaging, so these are 100% safe to use. Hope that helps and thanks for the comment! =)