Chocolate Waffle Turtle Cookies

"Many years ago, a friend promised to bring Turtle Cookies to a holiday cookie swap," she said. "They were delicious: beautifully frosted with green mint icing and garnished with a walnut, but I was expecting something similar to Turtle candy with caramel and pecans! We all exchanged delicious cookies and recipes. I never made the cookies because I didn't have a waffle iron. Years passed and I lost touch with the friend and lost the recipe. A long time later, I found the recipe tucked inside a cookbook. I bought a waffle iron just so I could try these cookies. I made it a few times with different variations of caramel and chocolate icing until I settled on this version. The unusual preparation with the waffle iron makes a nice change from traditional baking methods. It would be fun to serve them in one of those retro plastic turtle dishes with the little ramp and a palm tree!"

½ cup melted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
6 Tablespoons cocoa
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
36 soft vanilla caramels
2 teaspoons very hot water
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
2 Tablespoons butter
1-½ teaspoons light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons boiling water
Pecan halves, 2 ½ -4 ounce package

Preheat waffle iron.

Cream butter and sugars. Stir in eggs. Combine flour, cocoa and salt; add to butter and sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla.

Drop by rounded teaspoon on hot waffle iron. Close lid and bake 1 – 1 ½ minutes until set. (Test one and determine best time on your waffle iron.) Remove to wire rack.

Melt caramels in microwave about 1 minute. Do not boil. Stir in water a teaspoon at a time. Drop about a teaspoon on each cookie. Keep caramel over hot (not boiling) water to keep it soft.

Melt butter and chocolate morsels in microwave about 2 minutes. Stop and stir after one minute. Stir until butter and chocolate are melted. Beat in corn syrup and vanilla. Add 1 tablespoon hot water; up to one more tablespoon can be added until desired consistency is reached. Keep warm over hot (not boiling) water. Drizzle about a teaspoon over the caramel on each cookie. Press in pecan half. Allow to cool completely.

Makes about a 3 ½ dozen.

Store one layer deep in a loosely covered container.