Okay, so first I have to get this off my chest...why in the world did the producers choose Juan Pablo to be The Bachelor in the first place!?!??!!  I never understood how or why he was chosen.  I remember all of this talk about how he was "the sexiest bachelor ever" and the previews kept referring to how women loved his accent.  Maybe I'm crazy but I never saw the appeal and his accent never did anything for me.

After watching this season of the show, I was blown away by how insensitive, rude and arrogant he was.  I feel so sorry for the girls who were on this season.  What a waste of their time and what a disappointment.

So now that I've gotten that off my chest, on to a sweeter, more pleasant subject.  :)  This week I've been in the mood for something chocolatey with a hint of caramel so I told Luke I wanted to create a turtle cupcake or a turtle cookie.  Luke with blunt-self said he'd rather have cookies, but then he had to add "aren't there tons of recipes for turtle cookies already".  I told him I was sure there were but I was going to make my own version. :)

This is what I came up with...



1 stick (1/2 cup) and 2 tbsp of butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven, to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter/margarine and sugar together.  Then add the egg and vanilla extract.



In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  To make sure there aren't any clumps, whisk the all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda and salt together.



Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. 

Once combined, stir the chocolate chips and chopped pecans into the batter.



Using a small ice cream scoop, drop about 2 tbsp. per cookie onto a greased cookie sheet.  As I mentioned before, I hate cleaning dishes so I always place tin foil on the cookie sheet before I cook on it to avoid having to clean a sticky mess.



Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.  This makes about 26 cookies.



For the caramel drizzle, there are 2 recipes to choose from depending on how much you like caramel.  The first recipe is a thinner, milder caramel flavor but the second recipe is thicker and richer in flavor.

The Milder Caramel Drizzle:

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 tbsp. butter or margarine

In a saucepan, stir the brown sugar and water together over medium low heat.  Once combined, increase the heat and bring to a boil and continue stirring.  Boil for about 5 minutes (until it's a light caramel color).  Remove from heat and let cool.

OR

The Richer Caramel Drizzle:

2 sticks (1 cup) of butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar, packed

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Once melted, add the brown sugar.  Bring to a boil and continue to stir until it turns a light caramel color.  Remove from heat and let cool.



Once the caramel sauce you choose to make has cooled, drizzle the caramel sauce over the cooled cookies and enjoy! :)