Sunday, December 19, 2010

Day 6: 12 Days of Cookies Countdown


Day 6 is upon us! And with is comes Pecan Turtles.

The recipe for today is not actually a "cookie" by definition but in our family they are always made with all the other Christmas cookies. They are pecan turtles. My mother is known for them. She does not like them, but the extended family does, and a tray of cookies would not be complete without a turtle on it. 

They are very easy. Here is what you do:


~Pecan Turtles~
1 bg. pecan halves
1 pgk. caramel squares
1 6-bar pkg. Hershey chocolate bars

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Line some baking sheets with parchment paper. Dump out the bag of pecan halves and find the ones that are not broken. Unwrap the caramels and count how many are in the bag, thats how many turtles you can make with the pecans. (there seems to be the least of the caramels) Unwrap the chocolate bars and break apart the sections. 

First, arrange the pecans like this:


This is your turtle 'base'. Make as many of these as you have caramels. If your pecans are broken, use broken halves for the head. It gets covered anyway. 

Next, place a caramel on top of the center of the turtle.


Place them carefully, so you don't bump off a caramel, into the oven and warm for about 5 min or so. How long this takes depends on your oven, how warm the caramels are, etc. Just watch them. When the caramels get slight soft around the edges is when you want to pull them out. You dont want them to melting all around the turtle. Have a bowl of cold water ready by your side and the chocolates ready to go right away, the next few steps happen fast. 

Take the trutles out of the oven and dip your fingers in water and squish the caramels down like this:


This makes the back. Do this to all of the turtles.

Immediately place a piece of chocolate on top of the caramel. Wait a few minuets.


Then swirl the chocolate in a circle to cover the caramel.


This makes the shell of the turtle

If you can, place the turtles, still on the baking sheet, into the fridge to harden up. Once hard, remove and  place into a tupperware container. Let come to room temp. before eating, otherwise the caramel is really hard. Then eat!

ENJOY!

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