Clean Eating Dark Chocolate "Sweet Georgia Browns" or "Turtles"
Shared by: ivanalocke
Ingredients
Directions
Place a parchment-lined baking sheet in the freezer to chill. We will use this later for the assembly of these treats.
PECANS
For the pecans, preheat your oven to 250F.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over your stovetop. Place pecans into a bowl and add melted butter and salt to taste (approximately 1-2 tsp, depending on taste). Stir well.
Pour buttered pecans onto a different parchment-lined baking sheet (not the one chilling in the freezer) and toast in oven for 60 minutes, or until the nuts become aromatic and golden. Remove from oven and set aside.
CARAMEL
For the caramel, place all ingredients into a saucepan over the stovetop and bring to a boil, stirring so that everything is combined.
Once mixture starts boiling, turn heat on low and simmer mixture for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After 25 minutes, stir the caramel continuously for the remaining 5 minutes, allowing it to thicken.
Pour caramel in a jar or container and allow it to cool; this will help the caramel thicken up a bit too. The longer you leave it the more it will thicken.
CHOCOLATE
Melt the dark chocolate and coconut oil together in a double-boiler over the stove and set aside. (You can make a make-shift double-boiler by placing a bowl in a large pot full of water on the stove, and melting the chocolate in the bowl).
ASSEMBLY
Remove cookie sheet from freezer. Dollop about 1/2 tbsp of melted chocolate into a dozen small circles on your chilled cookie sheet. They will harden quite quickly due to the chilled cookie sheet.
Immediately place three of the toasted pecans on each of the dollop of chocolate circles, pointing outwards with some of the nut hanging over the side of the chocolate.
When the caramel has cooled to a thick, but fluid consistency, spoon a tablespoon onto each group of pecans to form the body of the turtle or sweet georgia brown.
Scoop about 1 tbsp of chocolate over each turtle, leaving some of the pecans exposed. It doesn't need to be tidy. Use the back of a spoon to move the chocolate around if necessary.
Place in the fridge to set for 20 minutes.
Serve chilled. These turtles can be kept at room temperature, but the chocolate and caramel may soften and become sticky, so refrigerate to keep them at their best!
These treats can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container in your freezer.