Chocolate Turtles
Chocolate turtles are a melt-in-your-mouth candy recipe that combines crunchy pecans, creamy caramel, and rich milk chocolate into one amazing treat.
Ingredients
- 3 cups pecans halves
- 11 ounces caramels 38 individually wrapped
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 12 ounces milk chocolate chips you could also use 12-ounce bag of dark chocolate chips
- 1 to 2 tablespoons sea salt optional sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
- Evenly spread the pecan halves over the parchment paper. Bake for 5 minutes. Allow the pecan halves to cool completely.
- Line 2 to 3 baking sheets with very lightly sprayed parchment paper, wax paper, or silicone baking liner.
- Arrange the pecans in groups of 3 to 4 pecan halves. Make sure to space the pecan clusters at least 1 to 1½ inches apart.
- Remove the plastic wrap from the individual caramels and place them in a medium-sized heat-safe bowl.
- Add the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream to the caramels. Heat the caramel and cream in 45-second intervals. Stir well after each interval until the mixture is smooth.
- Once the caramel is smooth, immediately spoon 1 to 1½ teaspoons over the center of the pecan clusters.
- Add the milk chocolate chips or the dark chocolate chips to a medium-sized microwaveable plastic bowl or microwaveable silicone bowl.
- Heat for 30 seconds and stir well. Heat again for 30 seconds and stir well. Then heat for 15 seconds and stir well. You can heat would be 10 seconds if needed, but you want to have a few whole chips still in the melted chocolate and not all the chips to be melted, risking overheating the chocolate. After this final heating, stir the chocolate until all chips are melted and continue stirring the chocolate for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Spoon 1 to 1½ teaspoons of the melted chocolate over the center of the caramel. Use the tip or back of your spoon to make a little swirl onto the top of the chocolate.
- If you wish to garnish the top of the chocolate with sea salt, sprinkle just a dash on top of the chocolate.
- Allow the turtles to sit for at least 2 hours to ensure they set properly.
Notes
You can use wax paper or silicone liner as well on your baking sheet.
Oven temperatures vary and may need to be recalibrated periodically to ensure they are accurate. Make sure to keep a close eye on your pecans as the suggested baking time approaches.
Tempering the chocolate in the microwave is best done in a microwavable plastic or silicone container. This is better than using glass because glass maintains the heat, and if you are melting chocolate, it’s better to cool the chocolate down quickly after melting it.
If you are giving the homemade turtles as gifts, place the turtles in regular cupcake liners.
To get your turtle candies off the pan, the easiest way is to lift the parchment paper from the pan and separate the turtles from the paper, bending the paper back. When you try to just lift the turtle flat off of the pan, you can easily break the cute little turtle feet!