Lion House Pecan Caramel Turtles

Every year for our Christmas Eve dinner I make homemade Caramels, I have been wanting to try Turtles for a long time, but didn't dare. I found a recipe in my Lion House cookbook, and it was so easy and soooo yummy. They will definately be a hit if your in charge of bringing chocolate to the next family party.


2 cups sugar
2 cups light corn syrup
2 cups light cream (I could not find light cream in the dairy isle, I purchased regular cream...it's labeled heavy whipping cream, it's in a purple milk box. Note: This is not the same as Cool Whip).
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup evaporated milk
6 Tbsp. Butter
Pecan Halves (I just purchased Western Family's in the large bag, they are about $7.99)
Melted Chocolate (optional-if you want them dipped. I would suggest it though...yum!!) Note: Purchase good DIPPING chocolate. The stuff that comes wrapped in plastic wrap, you can buy this at Lee's or any specialty kitchen store.

Combine Sugar, corn syrup, cream, and salt in a HEAVY saucepan. This will rise as it thickens and boils! Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Adjust temperature to maintain a steady boil and cook, stirring often, until mixture reaches soft-ball stage, 236 degrees (a soft ball should form when mixture is dropped into cold water.) SLOWLY-so boiling doesn't stop-add evaporated milk and butter. Continue cooking and stirring until candy reaches firm ball stage, 245 degrees (mixture forms a ball when dropped into cold water and won't flatten when removed); remove from heat. Arrage pecans in clusters on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. (Note: I would spray the wax paper with a little PAM and I used 4 pecan halves per Turtle and that was perfect). Drop a spoonful of caramel onto each pecan cluster. Cool. (NOTE: I let the clusters set up overnight and did the dipping the next day, and that worked out really nice).

Dip candies in melted chocolate. I melted the dipping chocolate in a double boiler, Use a med/large pot and get the water boiling and place a glass bowl over it (make sure the glass bowl doesn't actually touch the boiling water). And let the chocolate melt over med/high heat. Makes 2 1/2 pounds of candy. Which ended up being about 40+ turtles. Happy Holidays!