Snappy Turtle Cookies are the cutest cookie recipe! With a maple cookie base, a rich chocolate frosting “turtle shell”, and pecan halves used to represent the legs of a turtle, these turtle shaped cookies are sure to delight your friends and family!
This Snappy Turtle Cookies recipe is the one cookie that we make every single Christmas season, without fail. If there aren’t Snappy Turtles on the cookie tray, it’s just not Christmas. Based on my family’s 1967 edition of the Pillsbury’s Bake-Off Cookie Book Recipe (which has my Grandma’s hand-written notes on how to double the recipe), this cookie recipe came from Pillsbury’s 4th bakeoff contest in 1952 by Beatrice Harlib of Lincolnwood, Illinois. My family has adapted this easy cookie recipe, and it is a staple in my household.
While my family enjoys this recipe as one of our go-to Christmas recipes, this delicious cookie could really be enjoyed any time of year. Bring it to family reunions, summer parties, game night… whenever you need a fun treat to share. I’ve got a lot of great recipes for cookies on my site, so why not combine these Snappy Turtle Cookies with one or two other cookie recipes for a nice little cookie tray to share with your loved ones?!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
The cutest cookie! I mean, these cookies look like little turtles, how cute is that?!
Lovely maple cookie base. The cookie itself is soft, pillowy, and bursting with maple flavor. Such a wonderful treat.
Awesome flavor combination. If you didn’t know you needed maple, chocolate, and pecan all combined together in one bite, you do now. Oh. My. Goodness.
A great recipe for little helpers to participate! There are a lot of opportunities in this recipe to have you kids join you. Try having them help while mixing the dough, setting out turtle feet, and frosting your cooled cookies! I always love helping make these when I was a kid.
Ingredients Needed
Salted Butter: Butter adds richness, tenderness, and structure to cookies. I grew up using salted butter in baking, and still do to this day (especially when baking cookies). If preferred, you can use unsalted butter (which is listed in the ‘recipe variations and substitutions’ section).
Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is used to both sweeten our cookies and also contributes to our recipe being nice and chewy. Both light brown sugar and dark brown sugar work in this cookie recipe. Light brown sugar has a more subtle flavor than dark, due to a lower molasses content, so choose per your preference (or based on whichever one you happen to have in your pantry). Using dark brown sugar will make your cookies just a bit darker in color too.
Large Eggs: We use whole eggs in our cookies to help provide structure and leavening while also adding moisture to our cookie’s dough. This is one way we differ from the original recipe, which has you separating an egg white and egg yolk to use at different times during the recipe… you just don’t need to do this, and the texture from using the whole egg is extra pillowy using two full eggs. And there’s no need to fuss with the extra step to dip bottoms of each dough ball into egg whites to get them to stick to your pecan pieces.
Vanilla Extract AND Maple Flavoring: Vanilla extract adds a lovely depth of flavor to our cookies, but using maple flavoring is what really makes these cookies special. Our recipe adds more maple flavoring than the Pillsbury kitchens did originally, because a bold maple flavor is one of the things that make these cookies special.
Baking Soda: We use baking soda as our leavening agent in this cookie recipe because it helps create chewy cookies.
Salt: Salt is used in baking to enhance flavors and helps to balance the sweetness of our bake.
All-Purpose Flour: We’re using all-purpose flour for our cookies for a number of reasons. First, all-purpose flour is ideal for baking cookies because it has the optimal protein range for this type of baking, resulting in chewy cookies when baked properly. Second, it’s a common pantry staple for most people and is easy to find at your local grocery store, Target, Walmart, or Costco.
Pecan Halves: Pecan pieces are used for the legs of turtle. You’ll set these out onto your cookie sheets before you shape cookie dough into balls and place them on top of each set of pecan legs.
Canned Milk Chocolate Frosting: It’s true, we’re going to use convenient, canned milk chocolate frosting to top our turtles. We’ve tried endless varieties of frostings, including homemade, over the 30+ years I’ve been making these. But a simple can of milk chocolate frosting is just the best.
BAKING TIP: Using room temperature eggs is often suggested for baking because the eggs will incorporate into the softened butter easier. This results in a smooth, uniform batter. If you’re setting your eggs out on the counter to bring them up to room temperature, the standard rule of thumb is to set them out for at least 30 minutes prior to using them.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
- Use unsalted butter. If you’d prefer to bake with unsalted butter in this recipe, swap out the salted butter 1-for-1 and increase the amount of salt to ½ teaspoon.
- Make homemade frosting. If you’d prefer to make your own frosting (they are usually pretty easy recipes), go for it! This chocolate frosting recipe would be a good choice for these cookies.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: In a microwave safe bowl, soften the butter (this should take about 30 seconds from refrigerated).
Step 2: Add the softened butter and the brown sugar to a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.
Step 3: Add the remaining wet ingredients (the eggs, teaspoon vanilla extract, and teaspoon maple flavoring), and stir to combine.
Step 4: Slowly add the dry ingredients (½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, and flour) to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined and a dough is formed. If preferred, you can mix your dry ingredients together in a small bowl prior to adding.
Step 5: Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (up to overnight). Chilling helps you shape dough into the turtle bodies without it being sticky.
Step 6: While the dough chills, place groups of 4 pecan halves on your cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Be sure the place them so the tips of pecans will be able to show once you mold dough into 1-inch balls to place on the pecans.
Step 7: Heat oven to 350°F, and roll dough into 1-inch balls (I like to use a small cookie scoop to make this even easier!) and gently press onto each set of pecan legs.
Step 8: Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are a light golden brown and just set (do not overbake!). Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Step 9: Once completely cool, frost tops of each turtle with milk chocolate frosting to create the shells. Allow the frosting to set before storing.
Possible Dietary Restrictions?
This cookie recipe is vegetarian as written. You can also alter this recipe to be gluten free too!
- To make this into a gluten free cookie recipe, replace the all-purpose flour called for in the recipe with a one-to-one gluten free flour alternative. If you’re serving these to someone with celiac disease, be sure to check the label of the frosting you use for gluten-containing ingredients (or make a homemade one).
Expert Tips
Use a small cookie scoop to portion out your dough. This helps you get all of your turtles to be the same size!
Use wax paper between layers when storing. This helps to prevent your cookies from sticking together.
Storage
Store cookies in an airtight container with wax paper between layers (to prevent the frosting from sticking to other cookies) at room temperature for up to 5 days.
How to Freeze Dough Before Baking
Make the cookie dough as directed in the recipe card. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, allow the dough to thaw in the fridge for a few hours (up to overnight), and then scoop and place onto the pecans as noted in the recipe card.
How to Freeze After Baking
Ensure cookies are completely cool prior to freezing. Store baked cookies in an airtight container, with wax paper between layers, in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to enjoy, thaw cookies in the refrigerator or on the counter at room temperature.
Recipe FAQs
Can I use maple syrup instead of maple flavoring?
I do not recommend making this substitution because pure maple syrup doesn’t give you that big pop of maple flavor with the small amount of maple flavoring called for.
Love This Recipe? You May Also Enjoy
📖 Snappy Turtle Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer (alternative is a large mixing bowl + hand mixer)
Ingredients
- 1 Cup salted butter, softened
- 1 Cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple flavoring (maple extract)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 Cups all-purpose flour
- 4 Cups pecan halves
- 1 ,16 ounce container of milk chocolate frosting (such as Betty Crocker, or Duncan Hines)
Instructions
- Place the softened butter and the brown sugar to a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment) and cream together until fluffy.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients (the eggs, vanilla extract, and maple flavoring), and stir to combine.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients (the baking soda, salt, and flour) to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined and a dough is formed.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (up to overnight). Chilling helps you shape dough into the turtle bodies without it being sticky.
- While the dough chills, place groups of 4 pecan halves on your cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Be sure the place them so the tips of pecans will be able to show once you place your dough balls onto them.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and roll dough into 1-inch balls (I like to use a small cookie scoop to make this even easier!) and gently press a dough ball onto each set of pecan legs.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are a light golden brown and just set (do not overbake!). Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once completely cool, frost tops of each turtle with milk chocolate frosting to create the shells. Allow the frosting to set before storing.
Notes
Storage
Store cookies in an airtight container with wax paper between layers at room temperature for up to 5 days. See ‘Storage’ section of the blog post for how to freeze the dough and the cookies if desired.Recipe Variations and Substitutions
- Use unsalted butter. If you’d prefer to bake with unsalted butter in this recipe, swap out the salted butter 1-for-1 and increase the amount of salt to ½ teaspoon.
- Make homemade frosting. If you’d prefer to make your own frosting (they are usually pretty easy recipes), go for it! This chocolate frosting recipe would be a good choice for these cookies.
Possible Dietary Restrictions?
This cookie recipe is vegetarian as written. You can also alter this recipe to be gluten free too!- To make this into a gluten free cookie recipe, replace the all-purpose flour called for in the recipe with a one-to-one gluten free flour alternative. If you’re serving these to someone with celiac disease, be sure to check the label of the frosting you use for gluten-containing ingredients (or make a homemade one).
Kate T says
I hadn’t ever had a maple/chocolate combination before I tried this cookie. It’s so good! Going to have to find more ways to pair them together.
Meredith says
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the flavor combo! Thanks for giving these Turtle Cookies a try 🙂