Turtle Cookie Cups

Since I've been making things that were a bit complicated lately, and since Christmas is a busy busy time, I figured I would make something simple, but still delicious. These are also really cool to make and unlike anything I had ever seen before, which makes them extra sweet and really interesting for the people who eat them.  It also gave me a desire to make tarts, even though I've never baked anything with a pie crust before.  The closest I've come was my Cherry Pie Squares, but even those ended up more like cake.  Don't worry though, these are delicious and easy even if you suffer from the same pie-crust-phobia that I do.

 

The cookie dough for the shells has to be made first. The original recipe called for pre-made Betty Crocker dough but I prefer to make my own, so I found another simple recipe and used that.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F  In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. 

Roll  dough into balls, and place a chunk of dough slightly bigger than a goflball in each muffin hole.  Push down to thin out the bottom and push up the sides of the tin.  For the mini muffin tin, use less dough but try to get the same, tart-like shape. This picture is of the mini-muffin tin, but you can get an idea of what it's supposed to look like.

Bake 8-9  minutes at 375 or until edges just start to brown.  Using the end of a wooden spoon, push down the middle puffy part to form a cup.  In this picture the top four cookie shells have been pressed down, so you can see the difference from unpressed ones.  Bake for another 2-3 minutes.   Let shells cool for 30 minutes or so so they can firm up before adding the filling.

Place unwrapped caramels in a double boiler with cream.  Allow them to melt, stirring occasionally.

While caramels are melting, put chocolate chips in the bottom of the cups.  You can really put as much as you want here, but I filled them from half to one third full of chocolate. 

Using two spoons, one for spooning and one for scraping, fill each cup almost to the top with the caramel sauce.  This will melt the chocolate underneath.  Add 1-2 pecans on top of each cup for decoration (and deliciousness) and you're done!

Turtle Cookie Cups

Makes about 20 big turtle cups or 40 mini ones

Sugar Cookie Dough

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 (14 ounce) bags caramels, unwrapped

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup chopped pecans

adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything