I made the most amazing "Turtles" for my family this Valentines Day. I really wanted to make a special treat and Silas has been DYING for caramel. It just didn't seem fair that he couldn't eat it, so I thought I would investigate and see if I could figure out a way to make it allergy friendly. It still contains sugar, but no corn syrup, no dairy, no gluten, etc. It turned out beautifully, as did the turtles!
Allergy Friendly Method:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy free earth balance butter (I used nutiva organic extra virgin coconut oil for part of my butter)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut cream
Cook over medium heat in a heavy 1 1/2 quart saucepan, stirring constantly until around 240 - 245 degrees or when you get the texture of caramel you want with the drop test (drop some of the mixture in ice cold water & see if it hardens to your liking). When you take the mixture off the stove, add a tsp or so of gluten free vanilla & stir it in. The texture of this caramel will be a little sugary when it dries, but my goal was to NOT use corn syrup. If you use corn syrup you won't have this issue.
If you want to make caramel with corn syrup & dairy, here is the non-allergy friendly method. LOL!
Ingredients:
2 cups Sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 cup butter
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup light corn syrup
Use the same instructions as above, except use a 3 quart saucepan.
To make the turtles:
ReplyDeleteOn parchment paper, arrange 2 - 3 pecans close together for each turtle. Pour a glob of the caramel over them. Then cover them with melted chocolate. For the chocolate, I use Guittard (which are naturally dairy free) and I put a couple spoonfuls of nutiva coconut oil in with it to keep it smooth. Melt the chocolate in a pan, with another pan of hot water around the pan with chocolate (is that called a double boiler?) Melt it slowly on low!!! These turtles are heavenly....enjoy!