Hi everyone, can you believe it? Finally, I am this close to Graduation (Imagine me pinching my pointer finger with my thumb) 😀 – And with graduation comes performances, baking, class parties, baking, muck up days and lots of baking!
Before I graduate though, here I am ploughing through my workload because before every beautiful part of life, comes this hideous, clawing at your neck part known as my final exams. Eep! And because I cannot bake my butt off right now, I would like you to enjoy a huge range of wonderful guest posters especially chosen just for you!
So close to the end of school, I can taste it! Au revoir mes cheris!
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Turtles. Tuuuurtles. TURTLES! The first word which pops in my head when I think of the super creative, super fabulous Kim from Cravings of a Lunatic – if you have not heard of her blog, her insanely delicious and crazy blog, where have you been? 😉
A blogging Willy Wonka if you will, you really have to wonder where she gets her ideas for the insane desserts she shares with her readers!
I am sure you guys are going to enjoy this post to kick off myguest posts 😀 – Go Kim! Go Turtles (you shall see why…)
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Hi folks. Let me introduce myself before things get a little nutty here. I’m Kim and I blog atCravings of a Lunatic. It’s a bit of an indulgent blog, I make things likeTrixKrispiesandPink Popcorn. I bake way too much and have a serious penchant for anything sweet. I blog savoury food too, but sweets tend to be my first love.
WhenUruasked for some of her peeps to help her out by providing guest posts I was thrilled to offer up my services. I love this girl. Her love for food makes me super happy, and her zest for life and writing styling keep me coming back to visit her time and time again. She’s just good people, and it’s a pleasure to know her. I think she’s one of the most supportive bloggers I’ve ever met. I sent her an email asking if she had any requests and she said something turtle related would be great. Ah, a girl who knows me and my obsessions. I love it.
You see I’m a Canuck, and we have these chocolates here called Turtles which are chocolate, caramel and pecans shaped into a bit of a cluster. They resemble little turtles, hence the name. I’mwildly addicted to themand love any excuse to turn something into a turtle inspired treat. I have everything fromTurtles French Toast, toTurtle Tailgate Mix, and evenTurtle Applesfor Halloween. I think my all time favourite is myTurtle Popcorn Gone Wild. It’s sort of addictive and not good for your waistline at all. So when Uru mentioned turtles my mind was spinning with possibilities. Even though I already have oodles of turtle recipes on my site, I knew I could come up with more. It’s anever-endingjourney for me. I will never run out of ideas for my beloved turtle recipes.
I mulled over some ideas and finally settled on hand pies. I was not too sure how they would turn out, but I’m very adventurous so I knew I had to try. They are actually super easy to make. I was sort of surprised how easy to be honest. I almost felt bad about it, but I was just too busy shoving turtle hand pies in my own pie hole to really care all that much. These things are freaking amazing. I loved them hot out of the oven, when everything wasooeyand gooey. I could barely contain myself while taking photos. And let’s be honest, I did not contain myself very well at all. I was eating the hand pies before I even glazed them. I mean who wouldn’t. Just look at these things.
Since it’s smack in the middle of a hot, humid summer here I opted to cheat and use pre-made pie dough. You can totally make your own. But if you don’t make your own don’t feel bad about it. We all cheat from time to time. Life man, you gotta do what you gotta do. And this girl was battling weather and a busy schedule while coming down with a summer cold. So I took the easy way out and it left more time for gobbling these bad boys up. I may have even hidden a few before the family came home. Survival of the fittest, and fastest in our household. Blink and your food disappears. So hiding some is always a good option here at the B household. Not going to lie.My family members arelike rabid wolves some days. Rabid wolves who like chocolate, and caramel, and pecans.
Turtles Hand Pies:
Ingredients:
- 1 package of pre-made refrigerated pie dough
- 1 package of caramel candies
- 1 package of chocolate chips, or wafers
- 1/2 cup chopped, or crushed pecans
Directions:
- Preheatyour oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C)
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll out your dough onto parchment paper. Use cookie cutters, or biscuit cutters to cut small shapes. I didhalfwith hearts andhalfwith rounds.
- For me this made 10 hand pies. So you will need double that amount of shapes since you have a top and a bottom.
- Once you cut them out you can roll out leftover dough to cut more shapes.
- Layhalf ofyour shapes on top of the parchment lined cookie sheets.
- Fill each pie dough with a small amount of chocolate, I used two wafers per pie. Don’t over-stuff or they’ll leak. If using chips I’d say use about 1 tablespoon per pie dough.
- Add one to two pieces of caramel to each mini pie shape. I found cutting thecaramelsinto smallish pieces really helps to keep them from getting too much height that it would be hard to get the top pie piece on later.
- Now add about one to two pecan halves, crushed or broken into each pie dough.
- Place your top piece of pie dough over top and smooth out.
- Press down gently and then go around the edges with your fingers to press them tight so nothing leaks out.
- Take a fork and press the edges again so they are tight. Go around the entire edge with the fork. Then poke little holes in the top of the pie dough so steam can release out the top as the cook.
- You can brush them with egg wash if you like, I oddly was out of eggs so I didn’t worry about that.
- You can also sprinkle them with sugar at this point if you like. I tossed someDemerarasugar on half of mine.
- Place them in a preheated 400 degree F (204 degrees C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
- While they cook you can prep some drizzle for the top.
- Take about 1/2 cup of chocolate and melt it in the microwave (or use a double boiler if you prefer that method) for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Check and stir every 15 to 30 seconds since every microwave cooks differently. You wanted it melted and smooth for drizzling.
- Take about 1/2 cup ofcaramelsand melt them the same way. (If you over cook it try adding a touch of cream to loosen it up a bit.)
- Crush some extra pecans, about 1/4 cup, for tossing over top of the hand pies.
- Once the hand pies are out of the oven drizzle them first with chocolate, then caramel. Now you can toss pecans over top.
- Serve with big old Turtles smile! 😀
I cannot even begin to describe how good these are. They are also remarkably easy to make. Which is good since there’s nothing worse than taking all day to make something and the family inhales it in 1.39 seconds. This is a dessert I can feed them and feel like I got some bang for buck time wise. That rarely happens around here. Mostly because I inhale everything myself in 1.31 seconds so I can beat them to the punch. A girls gotta eat people. If it means inhaling food, hiding food or even stealing food out of my family’s hands I’m down with it. Happy Mama, Happy Family is my motto.
I’d like to thank my lovely friend,Uru, for allowing me the great pleasure of being here today. I am thrilled to do this and hope the turtle recipe makes her wildly happy. I also hope she passes her exams with flying colours.
Thanks to all you Go Bake Yourself readers for allowing me into your world today. I hope you get a chance to make these amazing Turtles Hand Pies. You will become as wildly addicted to Turtles as I am.
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What a way to kick off guest posts right? Bet you don’t miss me at all 😉 – Thank you so much for Kim for sharing your expertise on Turtles and such a delicious dessert – being a hand pie means it should constantly be held/devoured right?
To see more crazy fabulous creations, head on over toCravings of a Lunatic😀
