jersey caramel cookies and the fimfam, a lovely mix.

A few months ago my mum found this recipe in the sunday paper by donna hay, it seems kind of un-donna-ish; jersey caramels dont scream class to me but hey, im not classy and am in no place to judge donna so i cut it out and saved it. I wasnt just saving it for any time though, i knew that if i baked this and my cousin wasnt around to eat them all, well, he might just never let me see his beautiful little kiddies again, and i just couldnt have that. so i held onto the recipe untill they came up for a visit. it sure was tough though. Finally the other week they came up and graced me with their super energetic presence and i greeted them with hugs, cheek pinching, and the only thing they really wanted, cookies with jersey caramels in them. oh and dont judge your cookies by mine, i got distracted (as per usual) and overcooked them a little. my peeps didnt seem to mind though, and we managed to eat a fair few of them before my cousin's middle child heath came and ate the jersey caramel out of the middle of all the leftovers. i can tell my cousin is a real dad because he ate the soggy chewed caramel-less biscuits heath left behind, ah, love.

day 2 of their visit we made our way down to the park. heres my little toby, not so little anymore.

An action shot of heath, his whole life seems to be an action shot, not sure if i have any photos of him not moving!

And my little goddaughter ruby doo, i put her on the roof, she seemed pretty okay with it.

Oh yeah, and the cookies i was talking about before! Donna's didnt spill over like mine, but i kind of like them like that, derish!

Caramel Cookies Donna Hay Makes about 16

Ingredients

• 60g unsalted butter (i always just use normal butter, its probably an offence punishable by death in real baking kitchens so yeah, shhh, dont tell donna) (and possibly a little extra butter, see note in method)
• 1/3 cup golden syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour (after months of using american and english recipes, i was so excited to actually be able to use self raising flour again!)
• 8 jersey caramels halved (or if you can't get jersey caramels, just use any soft, chewy caramel lollies)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C. Place the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool.
• Add the flour to the butter mix until a smooth dough forms. (My dough was really dry and crumbly so i just melted a little more butter and added it a bit at a time till it stuck together. As you can see in the picture they were still a little dry so i guess a little too much is better than not enough).
• Roll tablespoonsful of dough into balls and place on baking trays lined with non stick baking paper. Press to flatten and top each with half a caramel. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden.