Turtle Cookies AKA The Red Deer Cookie
This is my interpretation of the Award Winning and Officially Designated Red Deer Cookie (Red Deer, Alberta, is my hometown). I have significantly changed the flat presentation by using the mini- muffin cups and garnishing with a pecan as well as inserting homemade caramel instead of a rolo chocolate. I have also doubled the nuts in the dough and toasted them.
Servings: 80
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter creamed
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon soda
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- ¾ cup cocoa
- 1 cup pecans , toasted and finely chopped
- 80 rolo chocolates (10 packages)
- 80 whole pecans
- Sanding sugar or sparkling sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Toast your pecans, first
- Cream white butter and sugar together until fluffy; add brown sugar, and continue to cream until fluffy
- Add two eggs, one at a time; continue to beat
- Add vanilla
- Sift together dry ingredients over wet ingredients, add finely chopped toasted nuts; combine well
- Roll a ball of dough around each rolo chocolate or preferably around some homemade caramel; roll each ball in sparkly sanding sugar
- Place in mini tart pan, and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350°F
- Sit on cooling rack, still in pan for 7 minutes, losses edges gently, and flip pan to release cookies (They will be very soft, so wait 10 to 15 minutes to move them for final decorating step
- "Glue" a pecan half onto each with a bit of icing sugar and water mixed together