Shelly's Recipe

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL TURTLE TREASURES

Category: Cookies

1/2 cup softened butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg,
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup very finely chopped pecans
1 can (13.4 oz.) Dulce de leche milk caramel (such as Nestles LaLechera)
16 toasted pecan halves
4 ounces milk chocolate
2 Tbsp. light cream

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

Separate egg. Reserve the white, then add yolk, milk and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture. Beat well.

Combine the flour, cocoa and salt. Add to the wet mixture and mix until combined. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and shape into 1 inch balls. Dip each ball in the reserved egg white, then roll in the finely chopped pecans. Place on greased baking sheets. Using your thumb, make a deep indentation in the center of each ball. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until set.

Place the Dulce de leche milk caramel in a pastry bag with a star tip and fill the center of each cookie. Place a toasted pecan half on top of each cookie and move to a wire rack to cool. In a small microwave safe bowl, microwave the milk chocolate and light cream on high for 30 – 60 seconds or until melted. Drizzle over the top of each cookie and let rest until chocolate is set.

Makes 18 cookies.

NOTES: My cookies spread a little and the indentations all but disappeared. To fix this, as soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I stuck the handle of a wooden spoon in the center of each cookie and gently molded a hole in the hot baked cookie.

Instead of using the Dulce de leche, I decided to melt the some caramels, put use 18 caramels plus 1 1/2 tablespoon of half & half in a large glass measure and microwaved on high for about 1 minute, stopping every 30 seconds to stirred until melted.

Instead of using milk chocolate, I used dark chocolate and omitted the cream. To drizzle, I put the melted dark chocolate in a heavy duty zipper bag (freezer bag), snipped a very tiny hole off the corner and drizzled.