Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

At the Germany Pavilion in Disney World’s Epcot, there is a caramel shop Karamell-Küche, which focuses on the Werther’s Originals brand and sells various caramel treats like caramel apples, caramel popcorn, and my favorite, the caramel apple oatmeal cookie. So before starting our Christmas cookie baking for the year, we wanted to come up with a way to recreate these cookies. I think what really makes these so good is using the Werther’s caramels because they have a more distinct flavor than most other baking caramels and they melt into something so soft and creamy. For our yearly baking, we ended up baking eggnog cookies, almond meltaways, and chocolate mint cookies, as well as a batch of turtles. These oatmeal cookies maybe didn’t overly scream “Christmas,” but were a nice balance to the other cookies we baked. Here is what we came up with and how we did it!

Pan: A cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper

Oven prep: Bake at 350˚ F

Makes about 24 cookies (In the photos I doubled the recipe)

What You’ll Need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

• Pinch of salt

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

• 1 3/4 cup quick oats

• 1 1/2 cups diced soft dried apple rings (if difficult to find, crisp dried apples can work, as well as dicing up a fresh apple)

• (optional) Chopped walnuts

For Carmel Drizzle:

• Bag of Werther’s Original soft caramels

• 1 Tbsp. condensed milk

• (optional) Plastic Ziplock bag

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350˚ F and line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

2. Using a large bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Set bowl aside.

3. In another large bowl, use a mixer to beat together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Add in the egg and vanilla and blend together again.

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

5. Use a spoon to mix in the oats, followed by the chopped apples. Finish up by adding the walnuts (if desired). The mixture will be quite thick at this point, but try to get the ingredients mixed together as thoroughly as you can.

6. With your oven preheated and your cookie sheet ready, begin to shape your dough into balls. The amount of dough per cookie should be about two tablespoons worth, making sure that each ball gets a generous quantity of apple. I liked to roll it in my hands to get them perfectly round, then gently press the top down a bit. I got 12 cookies onto my cookie sheet.

7. Bake your cookies for 12-14 minutes, until slightly browned.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

9. Once all of the cookies are cooled, it is time to begin the caramel. To start, you will need to unwrap all of the caramels and put them into a medium bowl. 

10. Add your condensed milk to the caramels and place in microwave. Begin with 30 seconds and remove to stir. Continue in 10 second intervals until melted and smooth. 

11. You can now use a spoon to drizzle onto the cookies or spoon the caramel into a Ziplock bag and cut a small portion off the corner of the bag. If you do this allow the caramel to cool for a minute or so before putting it into the bag, or else it will be a bit too hot to handle.

12. Drizzle a generous amount of caramel onto each cookie and allow to cool. The caramel with stay somewhat soft and chewy.

13. Store cookies in a cool, dry place. You may want to put some parchment paper in between if you layer them on top of each other, since the caramel may stick. Enjoy!

Here are some photos of the final product: