TURTLE COOKIES

I know I’m a nerd when it comes to anything food related, but I look forward to Christmas Cookie Exchanges as much as I look forward to Christmas morning!
My mom has attended one with her friends for years, and it’s a tradition I want to carry on each year with my friends! My mom would always come home with a huge tub of different cookies. She’d put them in the freezer so that we could take some out each night throughout the holidays and enjoy them for longer.
I usually make mint brownies for my cookie exchanges, but I’ve made these turtle cookies several times and they’re always a huge hit. They’re basically like a brownie bite with a caramel center, coated in pecans! YUM.
They look beautiful and impressive but they’re really easy to make!

Ingredients
For the cookies:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter 1 stick
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg , separated
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecans , finely chopped

For the Caramel:

• 2/3 cup Kraft Caramel Bits or regular caramels, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon water

Instructions

• Combine flour, cocoa and salt. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolk, milk and vanilla.  Stir in flour mixture, just until combined. Chill dough in the refrigerator for one hour.
• Whisk egg whites in a bowl until frothy.  Place chopped pecans in another shallow bowl. Remove dough from fridge and roll into small balls (however many cookies you want--I made 20 small ones).
• Roll each dough ball in the frothy egg whites, and then roll and press in the chopped pecans. Place on a greased baking sheet.  
• Use the back of a small measuring spoon to make an indentation in the center of each dough ball.
• For full instructions please see : tastesbetterfromscratch.com

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