Well, it's 9:34 p.m., Sunday night, and it's safe to say that the weekend is over, yet I have no idea where it went! I spent the last 3 days baking Christmas Cookies, and trying out a few more new recipes for Christmas treats. I succeeded in baking 5 different kinds of Christmas cookies, as well as chocolate pretzels, and one last treat that didn't go quite as planned.....Homemade Turtles. First, I had to place wax paper onto a sheet, and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Next, I were to place 3 pecan halves in a triangle arrangement, and drop some of the homemade caramel (that you made from their recipe) onto the pecan halves. So far, so good! :) Don't they look great?!
Progress was coming along nicely, and I had about 5 more of these cookie sheets, all set-up with the pecans and caramel. Next, I had to place them in the fridge to let them set. Okie Dokie! I came back about 3 hours later after a tasty dinner of white pizza :) and decided to finish these. The recipe said to melt the semi-sweet chocolate (which I decided to use milk chocolate instead, and was a much better choice) and "frost" the pecan arrangement. Hmmmm.... Frost?! Like, just cover the tops of these with chocolate? Wouldn't the caramel on the bottom still stick to everything?! Well, I can't see that working, so instead, I tried dipping them into the chocolate. Well, first of all, the caramel was never going to harden, but still stayed its good-ol' caramel constitency, so it was still quite "gooey", if thats a word. So dipping them in chocolate was quite a task. They didn't stay the nice pretty shape that I had arranged them in, and ended up just being clusters of pecans & caramel and now chocolate. Ok, fine. But after about 10 of these conconctions, my chocolate looked like this:
Can you see it? It looks lumpy and gross. (And do you see all the chocolate NOT in the pan?! Yup, my kitchen was a chocolate nightmare!!) I think its safe to say most of the caramel ended up in the chocolate, and not in the turtles ....ho hum. Now what?! This chocolate really isn't quite "dippable" anymore since its lumpy. Lumpy chocolate is probably a no-no. I'm sure there's an easier way, but I haven't figured it out yet! If you know, please pass it on :) But for now, I ended up with about 15 finished and edible turtles.
They don't at all look like what they started as, but they are delicious! I wish all 5 baking sheets of turtles had worked out. But for now, I'll just savor these 15 turtles :) What a great Christmas present this could have been! Who could resist homemade turtles?! I plan on trying these again in the future, and hopefully figure out a better way to dip them in chocolate, and maybe then I will succeed!
Hey Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI admire your endeavors! You're a brave soul! Maybe you and Michelle can go together with that bakery idea!
Ask Jake about Turtles. He makes them every year, I think.
:-)I wish I could try some! They look delicious!
Marianne
You should've bought those candy melts that Michael's sells - b/c that chocolate melts in the microwave (no liquids need to be added to melt it), and it's so easy to work with - that's how I make my chocolate pretzels. Also, the chocolate hards quite quickly:)
ReplyDeleteHey thanks Marianne! I'll try to remember to ask him next time I see him :)
ReplyDeleteMichelle, it wasn't the choc. I had a problem with, just dipping the turtles into the choc. And I use the choc. baking disks from giant eagle that melt nicely and are also good on choc. pretzels :) And it's a lot easier to melt in a saucepan over boiling water, so it stays nice and soft and doesn't harden.
Yo! That is HILARIOUS! Yes, it's true... Jake learned how to make turtles from his Gma. I wonder if he's gonna do it this year? We looked forever to find turtle molds. You paint chocolate on the inside of the mold, let it harden. Add a nut (or not), burn your fingers off putting in a little carmel, and then paint over everything with carmel. Once it hardens, they come out of the mold and look professional!
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