Chocolate Turtle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (142 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (28 g) cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (113 g) butter, softened
- ⅔ cup (141 g) sugar
- 1 large egg, separated, plus 1 egg white
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans, chopped fine
- 14 soft caramel candies
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners.
- Combine flour, cocoa, and salt in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined.
- Refrigerate dough until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Whisk egg white(s) in another bowl until frothy. Place pecans in another bowl. One at a time, roll dough into 1-inch balls, dip in egg whites, then roll in pecans. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using teaspoon measure, make indentation in center of each ball.
- Bake until set, 10 to 12 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking.
- Meanwhile, microwave caramels and cream in bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Once cookies are removed from oven, gently press existing indentations with teaspoon measure. Fill each with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon caramel mixture. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool completely.
Notes
Yield: the original recipe says it will make 2 dozen cookies, but I DOUBLED the recipe, and still only ended up with about 28 cookies (and I promise I didn’t eat that much of the batter).