This is a good thing to make for your holiday table, should you have one. It’s very “semi-homemade” so it’s a cinch, and in this case the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.
1 package (14 ounces) caramels
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 package (11 [shrinkflation] or 12 ounces) vanilla wafers
8 plain milk chocolate candy bars (1.55 ounces each), broken into squares*
*This is clearly a reference to Hershey bars, which weigh exactly 1.55 oz. and come in squares. No. Use a better, dark chocolate.
Chopped pecans, optional
Place caramels and milk in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave, uncovered, on high for 2 minutes or until melted. Stir until smooth. Spread over vanilla wafers; place on ungreased baking sheets.
Top each with a chocolate square. Place in a 225° oven for 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is melted. Spread with an icing knife. Sprinkle with pecans if desired.
This makes SEVEN DOZEN cookies. When I made these recently, did I halve or quarter the recipe? No, I did not. But in my gluttonous defense, we have a rotating door staff so I shared the wealth with them on my sporadic forays to walk The Faithful Hound. Luckily none of them have nut allergies so I did not cause workplace injuries.
Easy and delicious, for the win!
They really are, and best of all I think it took me a little over 1/2 hour to make 84 (or however many there ended up being) which is phenomenal output as far as Christmas cookies go. Have you ever tried to make macarons? I tried it once, never again, and this was when the pandemic lockdown began and I, foolishly, vowed to use all my enforced free time to Lern Nu Skillz. I did teach Better Half some rudimentary “business” Spanish and French, that always comes in handy, sort of, but just the other day I overheard him (via a Zoom call, natch) introduce a colleague to a client named Lupe, and he pronounced her name Loopy, so obviously my efforts were met with mixed results.
I can’t eat these, but it would give me great pleasure to watch you guys enjoy them.
I’m totally making these.
I appreciated your inclusion of it making 7 dozen cookies because when I got to the chocolate bars ingredients and was like wow holy fuck either this makes a ton or I am grossly misunderstanding how much chocolate goes on each one!
It was completely insane on my part because I didn’t read the “Makes: ” part when I sent Better Half off with the shopping list. I thought, “Well, this would be something nice to give to the door staff along with the annual ‘thank you for being you’ cash.” And then it was like, “Wow, when you have this many wafers and caramels and how much is this supposed to make?” I overestimated how much chocolate each caramel wafer could take, obvioulsy.