Moose Track Cookies

We were preparing for our summer vacation trip and I was looking for some "countdown to vacation" ideas. I found these Moose Track Cookies and thought they were pretty cute. I gave them a try, but I made my own variation. I combined this recipe and this recipe. Here's what I came up with.

MOOSE TRACK COOKIES
2 recipes combined by Me

TIP: When baking, it's important to lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups and then level with a knife. It's particularly important in this recipe, directly scooping out the flour with a measuring cup will result in dry, crumbly dough.

Ingredients:
 1 c. real butter, no substitutes!
1 c. sugar
1 egg, extra large
1 1/2 t. almond extract (you could use vanilla instead- which I always use)
3 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 T. cocoa powder
1 t. butter, melted
Caramels, cut into small pieces (I used the Kraft caramel bites, like chocolate chip-sized)

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light & fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg and the extract and mix to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
3. Divide the cookie dough into 2 parts. Mix the cocoa powder and butter. Add cocoa butter mixture for ONE of the cookie dough parts and mix in. Now chill your dough.
4. To make the chilling and cutting process easier, roll the dough 1/4" thick between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Lay the sheet of dough flat on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes or place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
5. Cut cookies in circles (I use one of my glass cups) and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. The cocoa sugar cookie dough should be cut with a smaller circle than the sugar cookie dough (I use a smaller glass cup). (The cocoa dough will be the hoof mark of the moose track cookie.) Cut the cocoa dough circles in half. Place about 4-5 caramel bits on top of the sugar cookie and press down slightly. Then, place the cocoa halves on top of the caramel bits.
6.  Bake in preheated 350* oven for 8-12 minutes on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet. For soft cookies, bake 8-10 minutes or until just set. For lightly crisp cookies, bake 10-13 minutes, or unti the edges are golden brown. If you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you wil want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft,
7. When the desired doneness is reached, allow to cool on the pans for about 5 minutes and then transfer to the cooling racks and let the cookies cool completely. 

Yield: 3 dozen 2-3" cookies