Do you need a fun family project in the kitchen for this coming week? If you’re not cookied-out, Turtle Turtle Waffle Cookies are a cake-like chocolate cookie with caramel and pecan topping. They turn out looking like a bunch of cute little turtle families with their pokey heads, legs, and tails and “shell” (half pecan) on their backs. Which is why “Turtle” is in the name twice – for the chocolate/caramel/pecan flavor combination and for their animated appearance.
This can be a fun family project because there are several jobs to do after mixing up your cookie batter. Someone to man the waffle iron, another to dip on the caramel, and a young helper can easily place the pecans on top. If you’re doing this project solo, a little time management enables you to do turtle assembly in between the 1-2 minute cooking times for each batch of turtles on the waffle iron.
Turtle Turtle Waffle Cookies Process
Mix up your batter and place it into the fridge for 15 minutes or so. No required time, I have just found that a bit of chilling thickens it up and makes it easier to drop onto the waffle iron. It also produces fuller turtles in the final product. When you’re ready to cook, heat up the waffle iron on medium, spray both sides of the waffle iron, and drop two dollops into each of the four sections. This hasn’t been tried on a Belgian waffle iron, just a standard sized one. You can see that it’s a small amount on each teaspoon to make a turtle that doesn’t spread out and become a mutant with 14 legs.
Set a timer for a couple minutes. It’s not critical to time it, but if you’re prone to forget about them, a timer helps. They go for 1-2 minutes and take longer before they’re in danger of burning, so don’t worry about cooking them incorrectly. They’re done when they have set up and you can easily lift them off the waffle iron by gently prodding with a fork.
Keep repeating, spraying between each little batch, until you have a veritable army of turtles.
The simple finishing touches are adding a squiggle or a dollop of caramel, depending on what kind you’re using. Caramel ice cream topping in a squeeze bottle works, as does a heavier caramel such as apple-dipping caramel. It doesn’t take much – less than 1 teaspoon. Put on the caramel, and then press a pecan half onto the back, considering which protrusion on the turtle looks most like the head and lining up the point of your pecan with it.
So much fun! They have personality and just make me smile!
Turtle Turtle Waffle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 c butter or margarine
- 3 1/2 T cocoa
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 c sugar
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 t vanilla flavoring
- 1 c flour
- 1/4 c caramel sauce or dip
- 30-40 pecan halves, toasted if desired
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt margarine. Add cocoa.
- Remove from heat and mix in other ingredients
- Refrigerate batter for 15 minutes
- While batter rests, prepare pecans by placing them on a baking sheet and into the oven at 250° for 10 minutes to lightly toast.
- Heat waffle iron to Medium Heat
- Spray top and bottom of waffle iron with non-stick spray and place small scoops (tip of spoon) of batter onto the grid.
- Allow to cook 1-2 minutes. Set a timer if you like, but there's quite a bit of flexibility on the time and you're not going to burn them unless you completely forget them for several minutes.
- Remove from waffle iron by gently piercing with a fork, and place them onto a paper towel to cool.
- Top with a drizzle of ice cream caramel or apple-dipping caramel, and press a pecan half into the caramel. Allow to dry, then store in an air-tight container either in the fridge or at room temperature.
These quaint cookies are fun for kids. Also great for summer days if you want a fresh cookie without having to heat the oven. The fudgy flavor with a nutty crunch is a satisfying combo.