Well, hello there Rolo Minis - it’s a pleasure to meet you!  Oh, what’s that?  I don’t have to unwrap each individual candy…yes, please.

Normally, unwrapping a piece of candy isn’t exactly something that breaks a sweat – but unwrapping candy for baking is slightly annoying – despite the delicious pay off.  Enter these awesome little bags of candy that seem to be popping up on my store’s shelf.  I wonder if these were made with the “baker” in mind or just the folks who like tiny food (and dislike wrappers).  Sounds like a marketing question better left for another time.

Regardless of why they exist, these mini Rolo’s made some pretty darn good cookies.

I simply made a batch of my regular pudding cookie dough (with vanilla pudding mix).  Using a well-greased mini muffin tin, I dropped small spoonfuls of dough into each well using a cookie scoop like this:

As soon as they come out of the oven, you drop a mini rolo (upside down) into the center of each cookie.  The chocolate will start to melt and you finish them off with a tiny little sprinkle of sea salt.  Happy dance!!

You could certainly use regular size Rolo’s if you can’t find these minis.  You’ll just have more chocolate-y caramel-y goodness in the center of each…not exactly a bad thing.

Mini Salted Chocolate Caramel Cookies

• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. butter, softened
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 (3oz.) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine the flour and baking soda and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended.  Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture.  Mix well.

Grease a 24-cup mini muffin tin with cooking spray.  Using small rounded spoonfuls, drop the dough into each well.

Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly golden brown (mine were fine at 10 minutes).  They may still look a little under-done.  That’s okay, they’ll keep cooking on the tray as they cool.

Immediately drop a Rolo into the center of each cookie, lightly pressing down.  After you’ve finished adding candy to each cookie, go back and sprinkle the top of each with a tiny bit of sea salt.  Don’t go crazy here.  You just want a little hint of that salt to bring out the sweetness of the chocolate

Once they are comfortable to touch, loosen each cookie with a knife and transfer to a cooling rack.