Turtle Thumbprint Cookies

Soft and chewy turtle thumbprint cookies with a melty chocolate and caramel pecan-topped center!  

For more delicious cookies, head on over to my popular recipes for Caramel Pretzel White Chocolate Cookies, Cowboy Cookies, and Santa’s Christmas Cookies.

Ingredients

• Butter — I use unsalted butter but if you like a little extra salt in your cookies then you can use salted cookies. You might want to omit the salt though if you only have salted butter but don’t want too much salt in your cookies. 
• Granulated sugar — Any granulated, all-purpose sugar is fine. 
• Cocoa powder — Definitely use cocoa powder here. In addition to adding a lovely, light chocolatey flavor, it also helps to absorb liquids in the cookies, so thy stay nice and soft and fluffy. 
• Milk — I prefer to use whole milk or 2% in these chocolate turtle cookies. I would stay away from skim as I find it to be too watery. 
• Flour — Any kind of all-purpose flour is great. 
• Salt — Use just a little kosher salt here. Consider omitting if you’re using salted butter. 
• Baking powder — Baking powder gives these cookies their light, fluffy texture. 
• Baking soda — Baking soda is another ingredient that helps the cookies to rise. Making them super, extra fluffy and airy. 
• Rolo candies — Rolos are key here but if you don’t like them you could use another caramel candy, a Hershey kiss, or another individually wrapped chocolate candy that can easily fit on top of (and melt into) these chocolate pecan turtle cookies. 
• Whole pecans — Whole pecans make the “thumbprint” in these thumbprint cookies and work perfectly for pressing the Rolo into the chocolate cookie.

Here’s How You Make It

1. First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet. In a large bowl, you’ll go ahead and cream together the butter and sugar, then mix in the cocoa powder and milk.
2. Next, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until incorporated.
3. Then, roll the dough into small balls (about 1 1/2-2 inches wide), and place on the prepared baking sheet. Use your thumb to press down in the centers of the balls to make an indent.
4. Bake for 7-9 minutes until cookies look dry and start to crack a bit around the top. (I prefer to under cook mine a little bit so they stay very soft and chewy.)
5. Gently press down the centers again, and immediately place a Rolo in the center of each cookie. Return the pan to the oven for about 1 minute, take the pan out of the oven and immediately place a pecan on the top of each Rolo, pressing down firmly so the melty Rolo squishes out around the pecan.
6. Serve immediately or allow to cool completely and store at room temperature in airtight container up to 3-4 days.

Expert Tips and Tricks

• These easy chocolate turtle cookies can be kept in the fridge or stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. 
• Some great ideas for topping these thumbprint cookies include the Rolo/pecan combination and also: Rolo/pretzel, plain caramel/peanut M&M, white chocolate Hershey’s kiss/walnut, Hershey’s dark chocolate kiss/pretzel, and more. 
• You can make these up to a day ahead of time by making the batter and putting it in the fridge, then scooping out to bake the next day and topping as directed.

More Dessert Recipes

• Microwave Peanut Brittle
• Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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