Whip up a batch of our Take 5 Oatmeal Cookies. These sweet & salty oatmeal cookies are reminiscent of Take 5 candy bars. Lots of gooey caramel nestled inside chewy oatmeal cookies and coated with crunchy peanuts. And, of course, there's a chocolate drizzle too!
The highlight of these cookies is caramel. You know, that gooey, thick and rich sweet taffy that is good by itself or in just about anything - as a brownie, crepe or ice cream topping, flavoring for coffee, cake, bars, trifles, and of course COOKIES!
Have you ever had a Take 5 candy bar? Let me tell you, they are really decadently delicious! It's a crunchy chocolate bar that is chock full of caramel, peanuts, and pretzels - sound good? So I went to work to incorporate all these great flavors in one cookie.
I cheated a little as I substituted the oats for the pretzels although you could add some pretzels to the crushed peanuts and coat the cookies with both flavors - not a bad idea to try out next time.
I also found this great caramel product called Caramel Bits by Kraft and they're so much easier to use than having to open, what seems like, hundreds of packages of individual caramels and cut them into pieces. I have used the bits for other recipes where I need to make a caramel sauce and they melt a lot faster than the larger individually-wrapped pieces.
I sent half of the cookies into work with my husband and they were gone so fast he didn't even get one for himself. Now if that isn't a good endorsement I don't know what is!
Let me know if you try them. Would love to hear from you. Hope you enjoy!
Try my avocado cookies recipe with oatmeal, chocolate chips, cinnamon, and almond butter for a healthy treat.
Find more easy cookie recipes here on 2CM!
TAKE 5 OATMEAL COOKIES
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 eggs
- 1-½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3 cups quick-cooking oats
- 1 pkg Kraft Caramel Bits
- 2 cups peanuts, crushed
- 1 cup pretzels, crushed (optional)
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 Tablespoon cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets with a nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, cream butter with sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until well incorporated.
- In a second bowl, combine flour and next 4 ingredients. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats.
- Open caramel bits and place in a bowl. Crush peanuts (and combine with crushed pretzels if using) and place on large flat plate.
To assemble cookies:
- Take 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roll into round ball. Make an indentation and add 3-4 caramel bits. Re-roll to enclose bits. Roll ball in nuts, pressing slightly with fingers to help nuts adhere to dough. Place cookie on prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all dough has been used. (Make sure cookies are at least 2" apart as they will spread.)
- Bake 12-14 minutes or until nicely browned. Remove and let cool on cookie sheets for several minutes before moving to wire rack to finish cooling.
- While cookies are cooling, place chocolate & cream in a microwave safe measuring cup and melt in microwave in 30 second increments until mostly melted. Stir until smooth.
- Place wire rack of cookies over clean cookie sheet and drizzle chocolate over cooled cookies. Let chocolate set before storing in airtight container.
This post has been updated and was first published on May 19, 2015.
