caramel turtles

[jazzyjas]

Please help me locate this recipe. I remember seeing a recipe for these in one of the threads on gifts for the holidays -- or maybe one on candy -- but I can no longer locate it and I am frustrated looking through all of the search results. The recipe I am looking for uses brachs (or other brand) caramels rather then making the caramel. I have the candies left over from Halloween and would love to make these. Anyone remember where I can find this?

Thanks so much for your help

jasmine

[little_bopeep]

No recipe needed, babe....it's so simple, even I can do it!

Get a bag of Kraft caramels---I find Brach's to be too firm and don't melt as well. Unwrap and put in a glass bowl with about 1 tsp milk--no more than that! Nuke on about 80% power for a minute or so and check them (because all nukes are different). When melted through, give them a good stir (at this point, you could add a tablespoon of honey for a little added treat, but it's optional). Stir in about 1 cup pecan pieces (give or take, so that you don't have a lot of "unused" caramel). When all nut pieces are coated, turn the mixture out onto a buttered plate or marble slab (be SURE to butter it or use Pam) and let it cool until you can handle it comfortably. Cut off pieces as big as you want your candy to be and set them aside. From one bag of caramels, you should be able to get about 35 pieces of candy.

Now, some people use chocolate chips and paraffin, but this is just a total pain in the butt. Make it easy on yourself and make a nicer tasting piece of candy by getting some almond bark or some other bulk chocolate specifically made for dipping candy in. Here in Dallas, our grocery stores sell large blocks of Nestle chocolate in milk and white varieties in the produce section, or you can get similar chocolate at Sam's and sometimes Wal-Mart ( I love Wally World at Christmas--don't you?).

Melt a pretty fair amount of chocolate in the nuke, and don't add anything to it. Except that with the white chocolate, I *sometimes* find that I need to add a few drops of milk to keep the consistency smooth while I work. And you may have to reheat it before you're done-- just watch it closely because it does tend to scorch, even in the nuke. The white also tends to be thicker and doesn't go as far, so you may have to use more.

Toss a few of your caramel/pecan pieces in at a time and turn a few times with a fork until they're covered in chocolate. Transfer to a sheet of waxed paper that has been sprayed with Pam and allow to cool and harden--takes about an hour to be good and sure they're done. Don't try to rush the process by putting them in the fridge---it make the chocolate look cloudy, rather than nice and shiny.

I like to dip in one color and drizzle with the other (millk choc and white)...and you could add a couple of drops of food coloring to the white to make it more festive. I dip little pretzels using this method, and they come out great.

You could use any type of nut, really, if you don't like pecans....a mixture would be good. I like to use cashews sometimes. Or you could make psuedo-Star Crunches by using Rice Crispies instead of nuts. The world is your oyster! :cool:

[Anne]

Hi Jasmine. I do the turtles a little differently - I put clumps of 5 nuts together on a cookie sheet, put half a carmel or a whole carmel (depends of size of nuts and of carmels) and bake in the oven until the nuts are toasted and the carmel melted. I pull the cookie sheet out, let cool, heat chocolate chips with a bit of cream or butter in the microwave until melted and then pour the chocolate onto the cooled turtles, leaving a bit of the nut ends sticking out to look like the head and legs. This method results in fairly firm carmel while bo-peep's seems like you would have more control on how firm the final product is. If you want softer carmels just toast the nuts without the carmel, let them cool, and pour melted carmel of desired consistency on them. The main problem I have is keeping family members and guests from burning their fingers trying to snitch the turtles.

[funnybone]

Here's a recipe

Caramel Turtles

Yield: 6 servings

1 c Pecan halves
36 Caramels
1/2 c Sweet chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Arrange pecans, flat side down, in clusters of four. Place one caramel on each cluster of pecans. Heat until caramels soften, about 4-8 minutes. Remove from oven. Flatten caramel with buttered spatula. Cool slightly. remove from pan to wax paper. Swirl chocolate on top.