Bob’s Favorite Chocolate Covered Turtles

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~ raw, vegan, gluten-free ~

Sweet, simple, and sensual!  Most of us are familiar with commercially made candy, called Turtles.  They involve pecans, caramel, and chocolate.  I took this idea and reconstructed it into something healthier.

The same concept except these are shaped a little bit differently and are good for you!  Made with nuts that started out raw, were soaked and dehydrated, thus making them healthier and easier to digest. Plus it changes the texture of the pecan to light and crunchy, which Bob loves.

The  Caramel Filling

The “caramel” filling is made from pure dates! Which are sweet, have a caramel undertone, and filled with many health benefits as well.

The Chocolate Coating

Raw chocolate is an incredible superfood within itself. Cacao has more antioxidant flavonoids than any food tested so far, including blueberries, red wine, and black and green teas. In fact, it has up to four times the quantity of antioxidants found in green tea!  Now tell me… would you feel guilty eating a few of these?  I think not!

The “caramel” filling will make a little more than needed.  So you can either make more of these lovely candies or use the remainder for other fun and creative ideas.  After I had put them together, I was sitting at the table looking at them.  What was I going to call these?  I thought… Turtle Nuggets!… but then after thinking about it for a minute, it made me laugh because it reminded me of moose nuggets when I live in Alaska. I always had piles of those in my yard… so I gave it more thought and just simplified it by naming them Chocolate Covered Turtles.  Original huh?  Lol  Update: Bob changed the name of these treats. I can’t argue with the man. :) Enjoy and have a wonderful time in the kitchen. Blessings, amie sue

Ingredients:

Yields 40 candies

• 1 cup (180 g) packed Medjool dates, pitted
• 3 Tbsp (43 g) water
• 80 whole(100 g) raw pecans, soaked & dehydrated
• 1 cup (224 g)  hardening chocolate  or  vegan chocolate chips

Preparation:

Creating the turtles:

1. To make the caramel sauce, remove the pits from the dates and place them in a food processor that is fitted with the “S” blade.
   • Add the water and process until creamy.
   • Stop the machine every once in a while to scrape the sides down.
   • Place the sauce in a piping bag, fitted with a medium-sized tip.
2. Sort through the pecans and select large, whole ones.   Make two piles of forty pecans each.
3. Pipe the caramel sauce onto 40 of the pecans and then place another pecan on top.  Create a sandwich… turtle shells!
   • Match the pecans halves so they are basically the same size for one turtle candy.
   • Don’t squish the pecans together too hard causing the filling to seep out.

Chocolate coating process:

1. After the chocolate sauce is made, one by one, dip them into the chocolate and place on wax paper to dry.
   • If the chocolate is really runny, let it set up just a tad.
   • If it is too thick, slide the bowl into the dehydrator and warm it at 145 degrees (F) for 10+ minutes.
   • Find that sweet spot.
   • If you don’t make raw chocolate and wish to melt commercially made chocolate chips, add 1 Tbsp of melted coconut oil to 1 cup of chips.  Stir together really well.
2. Don’t attempt to dump a bunch in at once, just trust me on this. You will end up with a cluster of messiness.
3. Roll the turtle shell around in the chocolate until it is well coated.
   • Place the fork under the nut and lift straight up and out of the chocolate.
   • Tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to knock off excess chocolate. If you skip this step, you will end up with large puddles of chocolate that will harden underneath the turtle. This doesn’t affect the taste; it just looks a little sloppy.
   • After tapping the fork handle on the edge of the bowl, slide the base of the fork prongs along the edge of the bowl so the excess chocolate falls back into the bowl
   • Use a toothpick to push the candy off onto the wax or parchment paper.
4. Allow the chocolate to firm up before handling them.
   • I placed each candy in a small cupcake liner for my display.
   • Option: if you want to have that chocolate drizzle look like I did… allow the main outer chocolate coating to harden a bit, then dip a fork into the chocolate and wave it quickly back and forth over the candies.
5. These should last for weeks in the fridge.

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Tags: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free, sugar free, Vegan