My absolute favorite dessert is anything with chocolate and caramel. This is a fun recipe for turtle cookies, which combines a soft chocolate cookie with gooey caramel and pecans in the shape of turtles. You can use my double chocolate cookie recipe for the cookies, but I omitted the extra chocolate and just made chocolate cookies with a tiny bit less sugar since the caramel is already so sweet. I have to warn you: if you are on a diet, DO NOT make these cookies! I would say I am usually pretty disciplined, but I could not stop eating these cookies they are soo incredibly delicious! I won’t let myself make them again until Thanksgiving where I can give them to everyone and only eat ONE myself haha. I was curious why the chocolate/caramel combination was given the name “turtle”, and according to Wikipedia, a candymaker in 1918 pointed out the chocolate caramel candies they were making looked like turtles. I guess the name stuck ever since! We saw BEAUTIFUL turtles in Hawaii during our honeymoon (see pic below), and when I was making these turtle cookies it made me a little nostalgic. When can we go back?! We are planning a trip for this weekend that I am super excited about. More details later.
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick, room temperature)
- ½ cup and 2 tbsp white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 20 caramel squares
- 80 pecans
- Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C).
- In a mixing bowl, beat room temperature butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until creamed together.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt with a fork.
- Add flour/cocoa/baking soda/salt mixture a little at a time into butter/sugar/eggs/vanilla mixture by beating at low speed until well blended.
- Using a teaspoon or cookie scooper, drop batter onto cookie sheets, leaving an inch around each cookie drop.
- Place into oven and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Let cool 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Add 2 tbsp water and caramel squares to a small saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring frequently.
- Place a sheet of wax paper under the cookie rack to avoid a big mess.
- Drop 1 tsp melted caramel over each cookie and place pecans on top for the head, arms and feet. Swirl caramel with a spoon as it cools to keep it from dripping everywhere.
- Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow caramel to set.
- Drizzle melted chocolate over each turtle for an extra delicious treat.
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Your turtles are so so adorable my friend 😀
A great tribute to the perfectest candy ever 😉
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks so much 🙂 Turtles are the best candy ever indeed.
These look dangerous and amazing!! What a great recipe!!!
Thanks!
That is so creative! Love these turtles.
very cute….have you eaten real turtle ? ^0^