Chocolate Turtle Cookies

Before the holidays I had the pleasure of co hosting a cookie swap with one of my friends from church. Coming back with 8 dozen delicious new cookies and recipes made my hours in the kitchen worth the effort. I hope to post some of those recipes in the upcoming weeks, but to start off I'll share with you my little jewel of a recipe...Chocolate Turtle Cookies!

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, separated, plus 1 egg white
2 Tbs. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, chopped fine
14 soft caramel candies (I use worthers)
3 Tbs. heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar in another bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolk, milk and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined. Refrigerate dough until firm, at least 1 hour.
2. Whisk egg whites in bowl until frothy. Place pecans in another bowl. One at a time, roll dough into 1-inch balls, dip in egg whites, then roll in pecans. (it's easier to roll all the balls first, and then dip them). Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using teaspoon measure, make indentation in center of each ball. Bake until set, 10-12 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking.
3. Meanwhile, microwave caramels and cream in bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Once cookies are removed from oven, gently press existing indentations with teaspoon measure. Fill each with 1/2 tsp. caramel mixture. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool completely.
makes 2 dozen cookies
I froze many of mine and have been able to pull them out of the freezer to defrost for a few minutes and they still taste great!
Enjoy!