Chocolate thumb prints

If you want an easy recipe and don’t mind messy fingers, slightly time consuming, possibly a little fiddly, cookie, recipe, then this is perfect. I am one of those people where my mental visual effect is much better than the final result. I do have a mild case of OCD, which makes me hyper critical of everything I do. My opinion is that these could have been aesthetically beautiful, instead I got quirky but tasty. Just a few hints with this one, first there is a chance the thumbprint (you’ll get what I mean later if you don’t already know) will rise during the baking process, if this is the case, gently press down again on the indentation before they have a chance to cool and set – you have to put the caramel into the indentations, before they are totally cool, but if you leave the raised indentations to long you can’t fix it and won’t be able to fill them. Secondly, be careful with the caramel, it really burns if you accidently touch it, and lastly, you can easily split this recipe in half and do two batches, one with and one without nuts – if you are doing a batch without due to a nut allergy, I suggest making the ones without first and making sure they are cooled and sealed away before you start the nutty ones – those pesky nuts get everywhere.

Chocolate & Caramel Thumbprints

1 egg, yolk and white separated into separate bowls, cover and chill until needed

½ cup softened butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ tsp salt

16 vanilla caramels

3 tbsp whipping cream

1 ¼ cup finely chopped pecans

½ cup chocolate pieces

1 tsp shortening

1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds, add sugar and beat well, until creamed, beat in egg yolk, milk and vanilla.
2. In another bowl mix together, the flour, cocoa and salt then add to the butter mixture and beat until combined, wrap the dough in cling-film and put in the fridge for 2 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C). In a small pan melt the caramels with the whipping cream, over a low heat until you have a smooth mixture, then set aside.
4. Beat the egg white slightly, shape the dough into about 36, 1” balls, roll in the egg white and then the pecans to coat. Place the balls about an inch apart on a baking tray, then using your thumb make an indentation in the centre of each cookie.
5. Bake until the edges are firm, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately (and carefully) spoon the caramel mixture into the centre of the cookies, transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.
6. Melt the chocolate and the shortening until the mixture is smooth, then drizzle over the tops of the cookies, leave them to stand until the chocolate has set.