Double Chocolate Caramel Cookies

I've been bad.

Very bad.

I had a bag of these begging to be used:

And a dinner party to go to tonight so I decided to bake something to bring to the party.

Double Chocolate Caramel Cookies. Ohhhh baby. Yum.

These remind me of a treat that my mom used to make all the time affectionately known as "hiphugger brownies". They were chocolatey, melty, caramely brownies and called "hiphuggers" for obvious reasons. These are the cookie version of those indulgent brownies.

Double Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Source: Rookie Cookie

makes 64 small cookies

2 cups flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup caramel bits or chopped up caramel squares
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Set oven to 350°F.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar. Add eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in caramel bits and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or just until set. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

I actually did the calorie count on these, just because I was curious, and was surprised to find out that 2 cookies was only 184 calories. I guess I expected them to be much worse than that. (Granted, I did make the cookies pretty small, but still!)

184 calories per two cookies means....I'll have six. :)

Someone was hoping for me to drop some cookies on the floor so she could partake:

But I'm saving them for myself. Oh and I might share some with the people at the dinner party tonight.

Maybe.