My newest massive cookie creation includes a combination of a sweet chocolate dough studded with caramel pieces, pecans and chocolate chips to make Massive Turtle Cookies!  (Be sure to check out the recipes for my Original Massive Chocolate Chip Cookies  or these Massive Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.)  This turtle variation is quite fantastic.  In fact, my daughter swears they are the best ones yet! (Big props to her for buying and UNWRAPPING all the caramels for me.)

Chopped up caramels work better than caramel bits for these, (I cut each caramel in to 4 pieces, but you can totally do a little smaller if you want), you will get little puddles of gooey caramel when you use them.  I tried using the little round caramel bits in a test run – they barely melted and the ones on the top charred a little – though honestly they still tasted good, they were not the same – the little puddles from the cut up caramels were definitely the best!

These are deliciously decadent, fun to share and way bigger than they need to be, so anyone who gets one of these will find them to be a real treat.  Any leftovers can be heated for 20-25 seconds in the microwave to enjoy that right out of the oven gooeyness!  Trust me, these are fabulous!

A couple of additional tips for this recipe:

• I have used both Werther’s soft caramels and Kraft Caramels.  I’m slightly partial to the Werther’s ones but both work!
• Don’t squeeze the dough together when forming the balls or refrigerate the dough before baking.  You want to just lightly form the balls of dough, focusing more on making sure they are tall rather than wide.
• To make the cookies look even cuter, set aside about 2 Tbsp of each of the pecans and chocolate chips and 24 of the chopped pieces of caramel to use for the tops of the cookies, (optional.)

Ingredients:

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 410.  Prepare two baking sheets lined with silicone mats or parchment paper.
2. Cream together the cold, cubed butter and both sugars for approximately 3 minutes.  (I use my KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment.)
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides in between and add in the vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture and mix on low until just combined.
6. Mix in the chocolate chips, caramel pieces and pecans in to the dough, (you can leave some out to press in to the cookies if desired.)
7. Using a large cookie scoop, separate the dough in to 12 equal size balls of dough, yes they are HUGE.
8. Mix together the reserved pecans and chocolate chips and dip the top of each ball of dough lightly in the mix ins before placing six balls of dough on each cookie tray.  Push two of the caramel pieces in to the top of each and use your fingers to make them tall again if necessary – (don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty – just make sure they are clean first!)
9. Bake for 10-11 minutes until the cookies are just crisp on the top.  They will still be beautifully gooey inside.  (For best results I cook one tray in the oven at a time on the middle shelf.)
10. Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit on the trays on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the cooling racks.  Let cool at least another 10 minutes before eating so they set.