Caramel Popcorn Crunch Cookies

Ever since I stumbled across a recipe for Cap'n Crunch cookies, they've quickly become a favorite around here (and on the road, when I take 'em on trips). Good ole basic Cap'n Crunch was a favorite cereal from childhood through college, but I never was drawn to their other long-available flavors (peanut butter or crunch berry). I remember there was a vanilla version that was briefly available when I was a kid, called Vanilly Crunch, which I loved almost as much as life itself, but it did not catch on in the marketplace. My search for an image to include in this post led me to discover that there has been a whole line of failed "sequels" to Cap'n Crunch over the years:

Recently, I've enjoyed coming across some sporadically-available new flavors from the Cap'n and trying them out in these cookies, with great results. As I've noted before, it's not easy getting ahold of some of these: Cinnamon Roll Crunch has most consistently been located at Kroger in Virginia Beach, and Chocolate Crunch is carried at Target, but I've got to go to WalMart to find Sprinkled Donut Crunch. My own usual grocery stores have been sticking only with the "mainstream" versions.

This past week, though, an exceedingly rare find, brought to Winston-Salem all the way from a WalMart in Oklahoma, and available only in a few select stores: Caramel Popcorn Crunch:

Select stores, indeed: t's not available at WalMart.com or Amazon.com and even a basic Google search turns up very little on this new product. I did see where the Cap'n Crunch twitter feed has advertised it a bit, always with the note that it can only be found in select stores:

I have no idea how the cereal itself tastes in a bowl of milk, because that's not the reason I have it on hand. Instead, on a recent quiet evening at home, I made Cap'n Crunch cookies with this intriguing new version of that favorite childhood cereal, and the finished product was yet again worth writing home (or, at least, on the blog) about:

It didn't take long for me to repeat these, as mentioned in the Meal No. 1343 blog post.

Update: I don't often make it to the big WalMart SuperCenter, but I popped into the one on Kester Mill Road and, lo and behold, a healthy collection of this special edition cereal. I stocked up:

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"Cap'n Crunch Cookies," found online at The Capitol Baker, with credit going to The Sugar Plum Blog for inspiration and the source of the adapted recipe.