Im not a Turtle Maker…yet.

I married into a good family that introduced me to loaded nachos (SOO good!) and Turtles ( To DIE for!!!) I LOVE them! They are incredibly addicting. So I asked Sue (Dallen's mom) for the recipe and she briefly explained it to me, gave me some chocolate and the carmel recipe and then we headed back to Cedar! 

Yesterday I decided to give it a whirl. Let me tell ya…I don't know how she does it by herself and I wouldn't recommend trying it your first time alone unless you're with a professional candy maker ha ha!   Or maybe you could cut the recipe in half so you don't end up with a whole bucket of hard "chew your jaw off carmel" so if you mess up and cook the carmel too long like I did you won't feel like it was such a waste. 

So I went to the store bought me a nice new candy thermometer and when I got home went to work. 

Chopped 2 pounds of nuts and spread them out on a cookie sheet! Not hard.

Started making the carmel and after I dropped my brand new thermometer in the carmel twice, which says "Do not submerge" and then rinsed it off so now its all foggy on the inside and practically unreadable I started to get discouraged and ditched the dang thing and just waited till I thought the carmel was the right consistency and then dropped little spoonfuls onto the nuts. Harder than it sounds. I wasn't quite quick enough and some of the carmel got over cooked…ok so the majority of it got over cooked but if you like your carmel like peanut brittle please do come over and take it off my hands! 

The chocolate was easy. Melt it, let it set up and then melt it again, add some coconut oil and then dip the turtles in the chocolate! I tried to pick out the softest turtles and dipped them till the chocolate was gone. Then put them in the fridge to help set them. I think Sue said it was bakers chocolate and it is really quite delicious! I licked the bowl clean and it was my favorite part of the whole experience ha ha! 

Dallen came home and I told him they didn't turn out very good. He went into the kitchen and said that they looked like his moms and I said taste them! He said they taste fine but I think you cooked the carmel too long ha ha! Yes indeed. If you need a jaw workout and possibly are trying to get rid of a few fillings give me a call I have just the thing ;)

I will not be trying this again unless I have a professional by my side but if you are feeling ambitious here's the carmel recipe. Good luck! Hopefully yours turn out better than mine! 

Cream Caramels (For Turtles)

2 Cups sugar

1 1/2 C Karo-dark, light or a combination of syrups

1 C butter, unsalted

2 C whipping cream

1 C chopped nuts

1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, syrup, butter and 1 cup of cream. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Add another cup of cream and cook slowly to 240 degrees. Add Vanilla and nuts, pour into buttered pan, cool and cut.