Turtle Pecan Tassies

Chocolate, caramel, and pecans were meant to be together. It's true. No matter how you combine them, the results will always be fantastic. And, thus, here's a cookie that makes good ont hat promise.

They are basically plain sugar cookies filled with chocolate and caramel and then topped with pecans. They are amazing. Perfection. Everything I had hoped for and then some.

The only challenge with them is making the tassie shape, and the magic trick to that is a round measuring spoon.

It's really easy to make a hole for filling with a measuring spoon, plus it makes a nice clean scooped out spot for the chocolate and caramel.

Turtle Tassies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag caramels (the ones in the clear plastic wrappers)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup chocolate chips (approximate)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Your first step is to make sugar cookie dough. You could use the stuff in the tube, but I found that it was a little sweeter than I wanted for this purpose. So, on with the sugar cookies!

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar at low speed. Add the egg and mix some more. Then add the vanilla and mix a little more yet.

5. Toss the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix until you have a crumbly cookie mix.

6. Spray mini muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray. You're making 48 cookies, so plan accordingly.

7. Make little balls with the sugar cookie dough and leave a ball in each mini muffin spot. The balls should be about 1" in diameter, or just under. FYI-there is no point in shaping the balls perfectly. A lump of cookie will suffice.

8. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. They won't be done. That's exactly what you want.

9. While the cookies are baking, toss the whipping cream and unwrapped caramels in a nonstick saucepan. Turn the heat on low and start melting that caramel. Make sure you stir it often so you don't end up with burnt caramel because that would be sad.

10. Pull the cookies out of the oven and turn them into little cups using a measuring spoon, your fingers (be careful! they're hot!) or whatever seems to work for you.

11. Put the cookies back into the oven for 2-3 minutes, or until they are very lightly browned. Don't forget to keep stirring your caramel.

12. While the cookies are still hot, drop 4-5 chocolate chips in each cup.

13. By now, your caramel should be pretty much melted and gooey.  Spoon some into each little cookie cup, right up to the top.

14. While everything is still hot, sprinkle some crushed pecans over top of each little cookie.

15. Allow the Turtle Tassies to cool. They should slide right out of the muffin tin, but if you have trouble, use a fork to force them to spin a little and then they will come out easily.