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Turtle Peanut Butter Cookies – an easy peanut butter cookie recipe is topped with a caramel chocolate Rolo candy and a pecan, creating gooey turtles cookies! The simplest cookie recipe ever!
Oh my gosh, the weather you guys. It’s been NUTS! Wind, rain, more wind…crazy California storms. Of course, those of us in California are spoiled. My friends in Canada and Wisconsin are dealing with single digit (or negative) temperatures and snow and I’m all “OMG IT’S RAINING SO HARD I CAN’T DO MY ERRANDS OR I MIGHT GET WET.”
This is why I don’t live in a snowy area, for real. I’m actually going to Wisconsin next month for a workshop and I’m pretty much figuring I’m going to die of hypothermia and/or frostbite while I’m there. We Californians are kind of wussies when it comes to weather.
The rain and wind was so bad last weekend that one of my daughter’s dance shows was cancelled. The studio has so many classes they divide the show into 6 different performances, and Jordan had to perform in 4 of them, which meant we spent the ENTIRE last weekend of break in an auditorium. A branch fell on power lines near the school where the show was being held and the power was out, so now I get to bite my nails and wonder when they’re rescheduling the show (or if we’ll get refunded the $18/ticket we paid). And it’s supposed to be wet and rainy for then next 7 straight days!
Stormy days like this have me craving sweatpants, movies, hot chocolate, and COOKIES. I always hate when a rainy day falls on a busy schedule because I can’t just chill and binge watch Friends and eat Turtle Peanut Butter Turtle Cookies. People in other places get snow days…why don’t we get RAIN days? #notfair
Turtle peanut butter cookies are the simplest cookie recipe you’ll ever make. It starts with my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, which is also a PUDDING cookie recipe, and then you turn them into Turtles (caramel + pecans) with just 2 extra ingredients. PERFECTION!
Peanut butter cookies turned into pudding cookies are super soft and so good made into Turtle Peanut Butter Cookies with caramel and pecans!
Now, I’ve listed the recipe for the peanut butter cookies below, but you can use ANY of your favorite peanut butter cookie recipes, like, this one or this one. You can even start with a store bought peanut butter cookie, like a Nutter Butter or a bakery cookie from the bakery section of the grocery store. Or bake refrigerated peanut butter cookies, or start with a mix. Just bake them until they’re just almost done, then the Turtle happens: top with a caramel chocolate candy (like a Rolo or Dove), bake it until they’re melty, and top with a pecan. Easy peasy.
Don’t like peanut butter? Use chocolate chip cookies…or sugar cookies…or chocolate cookies or shortbread. Don’t like pecans? Use peanuts or cashews or almonds!! Or M&Ms!
Either way, make these turtle peanut butter cookies for a crowd…it’s too easy to eat them all!
Turtle Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Challenge Unsalted Butter softened
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 box 3.4 ounces instant vanilla pudding mix (or your favorite flavor)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 20-24 Rolo or other similar caramel candy
- 20-24 pecan halves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Cream butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar with a hand or a stand mixer until smooth. Mix in vanilla, egg, and milk. Add the pudding mix (the dry mix) to the batter and mix until combined, then mix in baking soda. Slowly mix in flour until the dough forms.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon sized cookie balls onto prepared cookie sheets. Press them in a criss-cross pattern with the tines of a fork.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the cookies are just no longer glossy on top.
- Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes. Place an unwrapped Rolo on top of each and return them to the oven for about 1 minute or until the candy is melty looking. Watch them carefully, it may take less time. Immediately press a pecan half onto the top of each cookie. Let cool completely before removing from pan.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze for up to one month.
Click here to see more PEANUT BUTTER recipes!
Click here to see more of my Christmas cookie recipes!
More turtles-inspired dessert recipes to love:
Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Turtle Brownies
Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies
These look amazing. I bet it’s hard not to eat all of them by yourself! Yum.
Ya spoiled Californians 😛
These cookies look like they can make any day better-caramel, pecans, chocolate, peanut butter…pretty much every delicious thing on this planet.
oh gosh, all weeekend in the auditorium? How did you do it? I would have gone mad. On the other hand, ya got these cookies so…..
WOW, these look great. Wish I had a few right now.
We have snow days once in a hole, but don’t you have fog days? When I was a kid, if we couldn’t see the house across the street when we looked out the window in the morning, we knew we would have a fog day. Are you too far north in the San Joaquin Valley for that? Thanks for the awesome cookie recipe! Very original!
Yeah our fog is never that bad. I think more in central CA than here in the valley. That fog is scary!
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