With just 3 ingredients, you can easily make this healthy chocolate turtles recipe.
When I first made this healthy chocolate turtles recipe for my daughters, neither one suspected they were made without caramel!
Now turtle lovers, please don’t be discouraged by the lack of caramel. I promise you plenty of sweet chewy goodness. It’s just that this recipe skips the refined sugars and relies on whole food in it’s place.
So what do you use in place of the caramel? Dates.
If you’ve never compared the flavor of dates to caramel, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much dates really do have a caramel flavor.
Using dates instead of caramel also makes this a super simple project in the kitchen.
I enlisted the help of my girls.
They were responsible for ripping the dates in half (no knife needed) and stuffing each half with a pecan.
I bought the dates in a huge tub from Costco, and they come already pitted.
I also bought my pecans from Costco. (Nuts are definitely one of the 5 Things To Buy From Costco).
Using dark chocolate for this recipe means less refined sugars. I enjoy a deep, dark 85% chocolate, but if you don’t, try going for the 65% instead.
Healthy Chocolate Turtles
16 ounces dark chocolate
Pitted dates
Pecan halves
Optional: Sea Salt
In a double boiler, melt your dark chocolate. Split the date in half. Stuff date with a pecan half. Cover each turtle with a huge spoonful of dark chocolate. If using, sprinkle with just a grain or two of sea salt.
Allow chocolate to cool and set.
That’s it!
This healthy chocolate turtles recipe is easy enough that even little ones can help. Which is quite useful if you want to make these for a large gathering or to give away at the holidays. Great paired with Lemon Truffles.
Deb
Do you completely halve the date so as to make 2? Also do you leave the filled date up or faced down with the pecan on bottom? Sorry for questions so redundant but I want to do right. Sounds great.
Andrea Green
Hi Deb, I used the whole date to make the turtle, but you could split it to make two. I have the pecan face up. Hope that helps! Andrea