12/3/07

Cooking 101 - Chocolate Turtles

Don't you want to sink your teeth into one of these yummy morsels?! Same here - and I did sink my teeth into a morsel...or two...or maybe three but I'm stopping counting at three.




You'll need:
2 or 3 14-oz. bags of caramels
evaporated milk
1 16-oz. bag of whole pecans
2 bags chocolate chips - I use half milk, half semi sweet
Foil
Waxed paper

1.) Unwrap and melt caramels. Throw them all in a big pot with some evaporated milk and stir them until it's all smooth and creamy. I don't think you need much of the milk, just enough to thin down the caramels and allow them to melt without burning. Maybe 1/4 c. of evaporated milk - maybe a little more.

2.) Once the caramel is all melted and gooey, add your pecans. You want every pecan to be evenly coated and then some. You don't want to add too many pecans and then end up with not enough melted caramel.

3.) Lay sheets of foil (you can spray them with Pam spray if you want) on your countertop and scoop out little spoonfulls of the caramel pecan mixture. Allow them to cool enough for you to handle them.

DO NOT USE WAXED PAPER FOR THIS STEP. Your caramels will stick to the paper and NEVER come off and you'll ruin the turtles forever! (All will be lost and you will cry big tears...) I know this.

4.) While your little turtle babies are cooling, melt your chocolate either in the microwave (carefully) or with the double-broiler method. I fill my stockpot less than half-way with water, put it on the stove to heat and then I put a huge, glass bowl on top of the pot. As long as NO moisture gets into the chocolate, including steam, this way is pretty easy. If your bowl is too small on top of the pot, you'll get moisture and ruin the chocolate.

5.) Peel off the turtles from the foil, discard the foil, and roll out sheets of waxed paper. Then, using toothpicks, dip each turtle into the melted chocolate, shake off the excess, and allow to cool on the waxed paper.

6.) After the turtles have cooled off, eat as many as you can before you pass out! This is always better to do with a good friend. Good Holiday fun....


Then package them in some cute bags like this from Papertrey Ink and you've got something that was actually pretty easy that people will LOVE.

8 comments:

DeGooyer Family said...

These are one of my favorites! My grandmother makes them every year, and I think this year I'll start, too. Thanks for the recipe!!

Chanda said...

I'm soooo making these for neighbor (ahem and myself ahem) gifts this year. Thanks for the great tip! I heart your blog.

Jenni said...

I found your blog through Tiffany's. I don't know if you remember me I am Jenni Barnes you are a few years younger than me. Anyway I guess the funny thing besides finding you though Tiff is your last commentor Chanda, she is in my ward...small world:)

Yummy turtles btw, I intend to try them out. I will have to coordinate with Chanda so we don't bring them to the same event. Then again you can never get too much of a good thing can you?

missliss5/Melissa said...

Hey....I think I could make those! And I soo love caramel. Thanks for the instructions, my friend, I'll give them a shot next week!

Abby said...

Hi Jenni! I definitely remember you - Janna was in my class and John was a year older than me and you were (I think) a year older than him, right? Anyway, it's SO good to hear from you!

How FUNNY that you and Chanda are in the same ward! That is awesome - small world!

Tif Sweeney said...

I so have to try these! So yummy!

hayley said...

my husband LOVES turtles! thanks for the recipe. and i LOVE the green plate you have in the picture. where did you get that?
-hayley

Abby said...

Hayley - thanks! The plate is a Pottery Barn Outlet plate.