Chocolate Caramel Delights

Beat sugar, butter, egg yolk, milk, vanilla until blended. Stir together flour, cocoa, salt in small bowl; blend into sugar/butter mixture. Chill dough at least one hour. Overnight is best.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat egg white slightly. Shape dough into small balls. Dip each ball into egg white; roll into pecans to coat. Place 1 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Press thumb gently in center of each ball. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set.

While cookies bake, prepare caramel filling. After cookies bake, press center of cookie again with thumb to make indentation. Immediately spoon about 1/4-1/2 tsp. caramel filling in center. Cool. Drizzle chocolate over top of cookie.

Caramel filling: heat the caramels and whipping cream in the top of a double boiler until melted, stirring occasionally.

Chocolate drizzle: melt the chocolate and shortening in the top of a double boiler, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Or, heat in microwave stirring every 30 seconds until melted.