Turtle Thumbprint Cookies

Turtle Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, divided
• 1/2 c butter, room temperature
• 2/3 c sugar
• 2 Tbls milk
• 1 Tbls vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 16 caramels
• 3 Tbls heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans
• 1 tsp shortening
• 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Yields about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Directions:

• Beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue beating until combined and creamy. Add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and beat until well combined.
• Sift flour, cocoa powder, and salt together in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time {trying to avoid a cocoa cloud – quite messy!} and beat until well combined.
• Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and chill for a couple hours.
• Chop the pecans pretty fine…
• Enlist helpers to unwrap the caramels.
• Heat unwrapped caramels and whipping cream in a small saucepan over low heat until nice and smooth.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll the balls in slightly beaten egg white. Then roll in pecans until coated. Reece did an entire tray all by himself and he’s six. Bryce’s balls were not exactly round per se, but who cares!
• Place balls on a lightly greased cookie sheet about one inch apart. Use your thumb to press in the center, making an indention.
• If you have a helper with smaller fingers, you may want to secretly use your thumb or else there won’t be a lot of room for the caramel and that, my friends, would be a catastrophe.
• Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are set. If the indention has disappeared during baking, use a measuring spoon to re-create the indention. {I actually used a carrot – LOL!}
• Spoon caramel mixture into the center of the cookies and remove to a wire rack and let cool. {If the caramel has thickened too much, just reheat on low until it reaches a thinner consistency.}
• Be careful not to overfill the cookies…
• Once the cookies have cooled, melt chocolate chips and shortening in microwave by heating in 15 second intervals, stirring in between.
• Drizzle the chocolate over the tops of the cookies and get ready to enjoy!
• Aren’t these the prettiest cookies EVER???