Turtle Cookies

 

I love a classic chocolate chip cookie and am on a seemingly never-ending quest to find the perfect recipe, but sometimes I like to mix it up a bit.  I've been on sort of a pecan kick ever since Thanksgiving so when we had some friends over on Superbowl Sunday I decided to toss some in my chocolate chip cookies.  The chocolate chips and pecans made me think of turtles and I had a bag of caramel bits in my cupboard so these cookies were born.  They did not disappoint.  I don't like dishes so this is a great 1 bowl cookie recipe.

Start out by creaming 2 sticks of butter with some sugar and brown sugar.  Add in some vanilla and a couple of eggs and beat until well combined.

Dump in some flour, corn starch, salt, and baking soda and then wrap your mixer with plastic wrap.  This will prevent you from having a mess when you turn your mixer on.

Mix slowly at first and then once some of the flour is mixed in, turn to medium and mix until combined.

Now for the mix-ins.  Turtles are usually milk chocolate so I used some milk chocolate chunks but I also wanted some semi-sweet chocolate chips so I did half and half.  Then I chopped up some pecans and poured in a generous amount of caramel bits.  If you don't have the bits you can cut up some caramels instead.   Turn on your mixer until they are all mixed in.

Use your cookie scoop to put dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  I froze some dough at this point for those days when I want a freshly baked cookie but don't want the time or mess of baking from scratch.

 

Look at all of those delicious mix-ins!

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.  The trick is to take them out while they still look a little under-baked in the center.  Then let them cool for 2 minutes on your cookie sheet before removing to your cooling rack (the residual heat from the cookie sheet will finish cooking them).  This will help the cookies to stay soft and chewy.

These cookies are definitely best a little bit warm.  They are delicious either way but the caramel bits are softer when they are warm.  You can pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them back up.

Turtle Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk chocolate chunks
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 1 cup caramel bits

1. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add in eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.
3. Then pour in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined.
4. Mix in chocolate chunks, chocolate chips, pecans, and caramel bits.
5. Bake at 350 for about 8-10 minutes then let cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to cooling rack.

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