Salted Caramel Turtles

While doing a little Christmas shopping and browsing all the stores around the Courthouse Square in La Grange, Texas, it was a treat to sample these tempting Caramel Turtles sitting at the desk of the Antique store that had just opened on the corner.

Merchants around the square are friendly and talkative, and after I asked, Susan, working the store that day, offered to send me her recipe to share. I’m hoping I get to eat these again…soon…Ingredients:

•         2 1/2 C pecans
•         1/2 C butter (salted)
•         1 C brown sugar
•         1/2 C light corn syrup
•         7 ounces sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of a 14 ounce can)
•         1/2 t vanilla
•         1 (12 ounce) package milk chocolate chips
•         1/2 t shortening (can use butter flavored Crisco)
•         Sea Salt

Instructions:

1. Toss 2 1/2 cups of pecans into a large skillet. Toast them over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until they have darkened just a bit and smell fragrant and wonderful. Only take a few minutes.
2. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray. Arrange every 3 pecans into a cluster. Leave about an inch between each cluster.
3. To make caramel, melt 1/2 C butter into a medium-sized sauce pan over medium high heat. Add  1 C brown sugar, 1/2 C light corn syrup and 7 ounces sweetened condensed milk. Increase the heat just a bit and stir it continually. Cook and stir until it reaches 235-240 degrees. Remove it from the heat when it reaches about 234 degrees. It will continue to rise in temperature just a bit even without the direct heat, making the caramel just the right texture.
4. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
5. Drizzle about 1 1/2 teaspoons of caramel over each cluster. Work quickly, caramel will begin to set up. Be sure there is caramel touching all of the nuts in your cluster. The caramel works like glue, sticking the pecans together.
6. Pour 12 ounces of milk chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each cooking interval.
7. Add 1/2 teaspoon of shortening to the melted chocolate. Allow it to sit for a minute or two (so it can melt and make the chocolate chips more spreadable). Stir it all together.
8. Spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons of melted chocolate over the top of the caramel and nuts. Swirl it around along the top making a pretty swoop with your spoon.
9. While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt on top of each one.
10. Allow the chocolate to set up. Once it has hardened and cooled you can serve them immediately, or transfer them to an air tight container.