Turtle Cookies

Inspired by the chocolate, caramel, and pecan candies, these Turtle Cookies combine some of my favorite ingredients for melt-in-your mouth cookies filled with gooey caramel and milk chocolate . Recipe includes a how-to video!

I’m not sure about you, but by the time November rolls around I’m already in full Christmas cookie swing. I’ve been working on my Christmas cookies for months already (which you know if you’ve been following my Instagram stories) and while I’m going to try to wait until December for many of them, this Turtle cookie recipe just couldn’t wait. With its soft, nutty, caramel-y center, chocolate drizzle and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate base, these would also make a great addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table. In fact, these are one of my new favorite cookies and you’ll see me making them year-round, even in the summer (there’s no wrong season for a cookie like this one).

What You Need

There are several different parts to making turtle cookies: The chocolate cookie bases, the caramel filling, and the topping.

Butter. I use unsalted butter, but if you only have salted on hand you can use that, just reduce the salt in the recipe to ¼ teaspoon.Sugar. I like to use a blend of regular granulated sugar and brown sugar (it’s what I use in the written recipe and in the video), but if I’m out I just use straight granulated sugar. I also forgot to include the brown sugar in this picture… whoops!Egg yolk. Just the yolk! Discard the white or save it to make meringues.Vanilla extract & Salt. For flavor.Flour. All-purpose flour, I don’t recommend (but haven’t tried) this recipe with any substitutes.Cocoa powder. I use unsweetened natural cocoa powder.

For the caramel you need just two ingredients:

Finally, you need your toppings:

Pecans. Chop them coarsely and sprinkle over the caramel while it’s still warm and particularly sticky. You can certainly substitute any other nut, but pecans are traditionally used in Turtle candies, so I wanted to use them in my Turtle cookies.Melted chocolate. A drizzle of melted milk chocolate is the perfect way to top off these cookies.

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

I have a few tips so you get perfectly round thumbprints every time:

Make sure you don’t over-measure your flour. Doing so will make a dough that’s too dry (and this is already a dry dough to begin with!) and prone to cracking. If you haven’t already read it, check out my guide on how to measure flour!Mix your dough until all of the flour is absorbed. Add the flour slowly and mix until combined after each addition so it has a chance to absorb the wet ingredients. Otherwise your dough will be too stiff.Don’t over-mix, either. Over-beating the dough will make the butter too warm, which can cause your dough to be sticky and tough to roll and can make your cookies spread in the oven.Roll the dough into a smooth ball between your palms and then immediately indent. If you wait, the surface of the dough begins to dry out and is prone to cracking when you press into it. If your dough still cracks, just re-roll and try again!If your measuring spoon is sticking to the dough when you’re imprinting it, dust the spoon with cocoa powder before making your impression.

With the exception of the last one, these tips apply to my classic thumbprint cookies as well.