I did most of my Christmas baking early this year, so I had cookies ready at the drop of a hat for any situation. Unexpected drive by cookie-ing? Did it. Cookies to work. Cookies to friends. Cookies in the mail. And then right before Christmas I felt it was time.
Time to make more cookies.
My goal with holiday baking is that I give all the treats away and start the new year fresh. Last night I took the last of these cookies to a friends house.
Mission: Accomplished
So what is a snurtle?
It's a snickerdoodle with caramel and a pecan. A snickerdoodle turtle. Deliciousness.
I finally visited Hammond's Candy, and they offer some of their candy in "Oops" format. It's not pretty, but it's tasty. During their Candy Cane Festival, they offered Oops bags of their vanilla caramels for $1. That's a lot of soft, creamy caramel for a steal. So I had caramel on hand for snurtling.
You can use your favorite snickerdoodle recipe...or use this one.
What You Need
For the cookie dough:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk (I use skim)
3 1/2 cups flour (I used 3 cups regular and 1/2 cup whole wheat just for fun)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped - throw them in your food processor to make it easy
For the coating:
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
2 tablespoons regular white sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
To turn a snickerdoodle into a snurtle:
soft caramels
pecan halves
What You Do
Beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla - keeping it light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and then the milk.
Sift the flour and baking soda over the butter mixture and stir (or use beaters on low) to blend. Stir in the finely chopped pecans. Cool in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 and put silicone baking mats on your baking sheets.
Combine all the ingredients for the cookie coating in a small bowl - you will use this to roll your cookies.
Roll your chilled dough into balls (about the diameter of a quarter) with your hands and then roll in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. If you're just going to make snicker doodles, set them on the baking sheet.
If you're going to make snurtles, press a small ball of caramel (no bigger than a dime) into the center of the cookie and top with a pecan half. Press the pecan and caramel into the cookie - if you just let is rest on top the caramel and pecan will slide to the side while the cookie bakes.
Check out this picture to get the snurtle idea:
Whether you snickerdoodle or snurtle it up, bake your cookies for about 8 minutes. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes and then let them cool on a wire rack. They will be soft (yum!).
Store in an airtight container until all cookies are devoured.
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