Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1stick) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
16 caramels, unwrapped (I used Werther's Original chewy caramels)
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 1/4 cups finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 teaspoon shortening
1. Separate egg; place yolk and white in separate bowls. Cover and chill egg white until needed. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of the bowl. Beat in egg yolk, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in flour mixture on low speed until combined. Cover and chill about 2 hours or until dough is easy to handle.
3. Preheat oven to 350*F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet (you can use a silpat as well); set aside. For filling, in a small heavy saucepan cook and stir caramels and whipping cream over low heat until mixture is smooth. Set aside.
4. Lightly beat reserved egg white. Place pecans in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in egg white, then in pecans to coat. Place balls 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet. Press your thumb into the center of each bal.
5. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are firm. If cookie center puff (which mine did) during baking, re-press with the back of a measuring teaspoon. Spoon filling into indentation in each cookie. Transfer to a wire rack; cool (if necessary, reheat filling to keep it spoonable)
*I poured my filling into a glass measuring cup and poured it into the cookies instead of spooning it
6. In another small saucepan cook and stir chocolate pieces and shortening over low heat until melted; cool slightly. Drizzle cookies with melted chocolate. Let stand until set.
Makes 32 small cookies & 24 medium size cookies.
As you can see from my picture I did not get a chance to put the chocolate drizzle over the cookies. Either way they were delicious :0)
