Here’s our second holiday cookie of the season – one that got raves from some of the people we shared them with.  This cookie – based on a recipe from the New York Times – is a parallel to the shortbreads we shared earlier this week, as it uses the same base dough.  In fact, if you made the double batch of dough from those cookies you’re already one step ahead of the game, since you’ll just be using the other half of the dough and mixing in a few things before baking your cookies.  And if you’re a little skeptical about these cookies, wondering if peanut butter and caramel really pair up well, trust us that these were a good, simple cookie with some great tastes all coming together to make for a great Christmas treat.

To make these, you’ll need:

• Half of the dough from this recipe, which calls for:
  • 4 sticks of butter
  • Sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • Flour
• A 5.5-ounce bag of hard caramels (we used that old standby, Werther’s)
• Creamy peanut butter

If you’re making the dough from scratch, follow the first step in the above recipe.  Then you can unwrap all your caramels, place them in a plastic zipper bag, put a towel on top of the plastic bag, and use a heavy rolling pin to crush the caramels.

Use your hands to roughly mix the caramel pieces into the dough …

… then measure out 1/4 cup of peanut butter and stir that in as well, so that it forms stripes in the dough but is not fully mixed in.

Scoop up portions of cookie dough that are about a tablespoon each and roll them into balls, then place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spaced about an inch apart.

Bake at 350°F for 6 minutes, then rotate your baking sheets around and from the top to bottom racks of your oven and bake for another 6 minutes or so, until the bottoms of the cookies are very lightly browned.

If you’d like, you can sprinkle a little bit of flaky salt on top when they come out of the oven, then let them cool and enjoy!

We were a little surprised at how well the caramel and peanut butter meld together in these cookies, and they turned out to be Miriam’s favorite for the holiday season.  They’re very simple to make, since all you have to do is whip up the dough, crush the caramels, and mix them in along with some peanut butter.  Plus, if you’ve been wondering just who eats Werther’s, now you know that they actually can be put to delicious use.  Make sure you check back next week for two more cookie recipes!