Chocolate & Caramel Combo Cookies

Ingredients

Cookie Base

3 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (or you can use vegan butter)

1/2 cup agave, maple syrup or honey

1 cup packed light brown or coconut sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature (or flax eggs if making vegan)

1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate base

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 cup chocolate chips or cacao nibs

1/2 cup cocoa puffs or chocolate crackle cereal

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt together and mix well. Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, beat butter, maple syrup and sugar together until super fluffy and light in colour. Add in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Combine well.
4. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl where necessary. This should be a thick and tight mixture!
5. Divide the base recipe into two seperate bowls. For the chocolate side, add cocoa, chocolate chips and cereal puffs. Mix to combine evenly.
6. Roll the vanilla and chocolate mixture into relatively small balls, (i went for teaspoon size), and set onto tray. To combine, grab one of each flavour and press firmly together, then press down onto a tray with fork or thumbprint.
7. Bake the cookies in batches for 12 minutes, or until lightly browned and crisp. Half way through, rotate the tray to ensure the cookies bake evenly. Remove from oven when done, and allow to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. The baked cookies will still be extremely soft (especially in the middle) when you remove them from the oven, so this step is crucial to avoid breaking!
8. Leave to cool completely and enjoy