Rolo Cookies

This weekend brings one of my favorite Christmas traditions: a cookie exchange.  I love seeing all the different varieties of cookies that people will come up with.....and when I say seeing, I really mean eating. :)

My contribution to the exchange will be Rolo Cookies.  My mother-in-law first introduced me to these yummy cookies when she made them at Christmas time two years ago.  They were soooooo good, I knew I had to try to make them sometime.  

First, I searched for a recipe to use as a guide and found this one from Pillsbury...

Pillsbury's Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies

Tip: When shaping cookie dough around the Rolo, you want to touch it as little as possible in order to keep the dough cool and easy to work with.  I used the Pampered Chef Tablespoon scoop to measure out the dough, then pressed the Rolo into the dough while still in the scoop.  The only time I touched the dough was to shape it over top of the Rolo.  Worked great, but still got a little messy as you can see. :)

To jazz up the cookies, I drizzled melted vanilla almond bark.  It also gave them a winter-y feel.

My little tweeks to the recipe:

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I came out short on the dough so I ended up making another half batch of the Pillsbury recipe.  After doing this, I had about 48 cookies.

I also omitted the nuts because I know not everybody is crazy about them.

Lastly, if the cookies cool before you eat them, just stick them in the microwave for 10 seconds to get that just-out-the-oven warmth and gooey, melted caramel center.

So, there they are!  Rolo Cookies.  Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!