Tootsie Roll Cookies

I have so much left over candy from Halloween. Even though it's 2020 we still bought candy for the kids and we did have a few. Not enough though as we had bags left. Through the beginning of November we made our way through the good ones, Reese's, Kit Kats, and so forth. Then came the gummy layer full of sour worms and sour patch kids. Last came the oldies but always goodies Tootsie Rolls and Dots. I don't have it in me to eat anymore candy but cookies are technically not candy, at least that's what I told myself while making these. I couldn't think of any cookie that could have dots in it and the texture combination does not sound appetizing. I chose the Tootsie Rolls and decided chocolate cookies it would be. This recipe is the result I hope you enjoy.

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 large egg (room temperature)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon espresso powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tootsie Roll® snack size unwrapped (or 20 of the smaller ones)
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

• Before we mix anything together we want to sift all of our dry ingredients into a bowl.

• Sift the four, coco powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt

• Set bowel aside for later ingredients

• to soften your butter you can either leave it out and let it warm up to room temperature or you can cut up the butter into cubes and microwave it for 15 seconds

• Take your softened butter and mix in both the white and brown sugars

• Take a hand mixer and cream together the sugars and butter about 1 to 2 minutes

• Remember to scrape down sides after every mixing

• Take your egg and add it to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix till combined.

• Take 1 Tablespoon of vanilla and mix together till combined

• Now that all the wet ingredients are combined this is when you want to add you flour mixture you set aside.

• Add a little at a time and mix till combined

• Remember to scrape down your sides after every mixing

• Do this till all the flour mixture is gone

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

• Line a pair of baking sheets with parchment paper

• Take a tablespoon full of the dough and spoon onto the parchment paper

• Place the dough 1 1/2 inches apart as these will spread and you can see they did in further pictures

• Once you have your dough placed on the parchment paper take a 1/2 teaspoon and indent the dough which will be where we fill in with our Tootsie roll mixture.

• Place your pans in the oven and bake for 7 - 8 minutes.

• Take out your cookies when they are lightly crispy around the edges and still a little soft in the middle

• You might notice that the indent did not turn out well so take that same 1/2 teaspoon and indent them again

• Do this while the cookies are still warm as it will be much easier then if they were to cool.

• Once all indented take and remove to a cooling rack.

• Take your Tootsie rolls and cut them up into 20 pieces

• If you look at the picture there are small indents where it is easier to cut

• cutting them up will help them melt easier in the pan

• In a pan combine the 20 Tootsie roll pieces and the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream

• You are going to wan to continuously stir this so that it won't burn on the bottom

• stir till all the Tootsie roll pieces have been dissolved

• I used a measuring cup to pour mine on but you can use anything that has a small spout as it makes it much easier to pour.

• After you have filled all of them up let them cool so that the middle is cool

• The tootsie roll mixture we put together now has a caramel like texture which means it it super sticky. I learned this the hard way when I stored them and didn't put wax paper in the container to divide the layers. Many cookies are not stuck all together but no matter how they turn out as long as they taste good that is all that matters.