Welcome to the Free Recipe of the Month!
Each month I feature a free recipe for visitors and regular subscribers. Once the month has passed, the recipe is retired into the BB Recipe Archives. So bake while the oven's hot! These recipes are only here and free for four short weeks!
Caramel Pudding Mix Oatmeal Cookies
I use double strength Madagascar vanilla or Nielsen Massey Vanilla paste for this recipe. It really rounds out the caramel taste. But no matter what pure vanilla extract you use, these are gorgeously mellow, chewy-crisp oatmeal cookies that are utterly bite-to-bite satisfying.
1 cup unsalted butter - melted and cooled
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 package caramel or butterscotch pudding mix *
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extra or 2 teaspoons vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon maple extract, optional
2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sweetened, shredded cococut
1 cup Hershey's butterscotch chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks or butterscotch (for an all butterscotch cookie)
1 cup whole pecans, optional
* You can use any sized pudding mix and both instant and regular pudding mix are fine.
Line a large baking sheets with parchment paper. Double stack baking sheets that will be placed on bottom most oven rack. Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large mixer bowl, stir together butter, sugars, pudding mix and extracts. Stir in eggs, water, oatmeal, rolled oats, coconut, flour, baking soda and salt. Fold in chips and pecans. Chill dough for 20 minutes. Form dough into large balls (about two tablespoons each). Place on baking sheet and press slightly.
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes until just set and browned around the edges.
Makes about 4 dozen.
