Turtle Thumbprint Cookies
Turtle Thumbprint Cookies from cravingsofalunatic.com- These turtle thumbprint cookies are perfect for the holidays or any day you want a delicious treat!
Ingredients
- For the Cookie Portion:
- 1 egg divided
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups chopped pecans
For the Caramel:
For the Chocolate Drizzle:
- 1 teaspoon shortening
- ½ c semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
For the Caramel Sauce (make this ahead of time):
- In a medium sized saucepan combine the sugar and ¼ cup warm water and cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Bring the syrup to a boil. Now cook this without stirring it until it begins to caramelize (remember do not stir!).
- Gently swirl the pan to help the syrup brown (mini-me swirls beautifully).
- Once the syrup has turned a beautiful amber colour you need to remove the pan from the heat.
- Stir in the cold butter. Let it bubble and swirl the pan.
- Stir in the heavy cream, swirl the pan again.
- Add the vanilla and the salt, stir or whisk this until smooth.
- Let stand until it starts to thicken enough to pour into cookies. While it's thickening and cooling make your cookies.
For the Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In your stand mixer beat butter for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, continue beating until creamy. Add the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla, beat until well combined.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture gradually, and beat until well combined.
- Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge for a couple of hours.
- Chop your pecans finely.
- Beat your egg white.
- Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, roll the balls in the egg white. Now roll the balls in pecans until well coated.
- Place balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet about one inch apart from each other. Use your thumb to press an indentation into the middle of each cookie, or use something like the blunt end of a honey dripper (they work well for so many things, I use mine all the time for weird things).
- Bake in your preheated oven for about 10 minutes. The indentation may have disappeared during baking so press it into the cookie again if need be.
- Pour your caramel into the holes of the cookies. Allow it to set and harden a bit.
For the Chocolate Drizzle:
- In your microwave melt the shortening and chocolate together, stirring every 15 to 30 seconds.
- Once it's melted drizzle it over the cookies.
- Serve with a big old Turtle loving smile!