Gluten Free Turtle Cookies

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and what better way to tell someone you care then baking them something special? Even if it doesn’t turn out perfectly it shows a lot of thought and care to bake. Then there are those times in life when you eat something so delicious you won’t even forget. This recipe for Gluten Free Turtle Cookies is just that. Never have you tried something so delicious and gluten free!!

“The cookie itself is impeccably dense, soft and intensely chocolate-y. The caramel has a perfect melt-in-your-mouth chewy consistency and a to-die-for sweet and salty flavor profile. The pecans, for their part, provide a splendid little crunch as well as a most welcomed hit of rich, nutty aroma. The dark chocolate drizzle seals in the whole experience.”

We recently received some baking products from Carrington Farms and knew immediately we had to try out this recipe. This recipe utilizes Carrington Farms Organic Ghee Clarified Butter and Organic Coconut Flour. Ghee is a clarified butter that contains Linoleic Acid to help balance cholesterol levels and contains Vitamin A, D and E. Its known from ancient India to reduce inflammation and increase energy. Its gluten free and contains no casein, whey, or lactose. Coconut flour is naturally gluten free, low in carbohydrates, and high in fiber.

Ingredients:

¾ cup almond flour
2 tbsp Carrington Farms Organic Coconut Flour
2 tbsp tapioca flour
½ cup organic cacao powder
¾ tsp Himalayan salt
½ cup Carrington Farms Organic Ghee Clarified Butter
½ cup raw honey
1 large egg
1 tbsp full fat coconut milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Caramel: Part I

1 cup coconut sugar
¼ cup water

Part II

½ cup full fat coconut milk
½ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup raw honey
3 tbsp Carrington Farms Organic Ghee Clarified Butter
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1 tsp Himalayan salt

Garnish

Chewy caramel (you’ll need about ¾ of the above recipe)
¼ cup raw pecans, chopped
18 pecan halves
50g dark chocolate, melted

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flours, tapioca starch, cacao powder and salt together, then sift. (It is STRONGLY recommend that you do not skip this step. It’s the best way to ensure that all the lumps get broken down- coconut flour can be especially lumpy).
Add ghee and honey to a separate bowl and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add egg, coconut milk and vanilla extract, cream some more until light and fluffy.
Add almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, cacao powder, and Himalayan salt then mix on low speed until barely just combined, no more. Finish mixing the batter by hand with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Transfer the cookie batter to the refrigerator, uncovered, and let it cool for at least 2 hours.
Meanwhile, start working on the chewy caramel: in a medium saucepan, mix the coconut sugar and water listed under “Part I” and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Let the mixture boil for about 3 minutes, until it takes a really dark caramel color and starts getting thicker.
Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan set over medium heat, mix all the ingredients listed under “Part II” and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture just barely starts to simmer then kill the heat. It is important that you do not let this come to a full boil.
As soon as Part I is ready, slowly pour in the warm coconut milk mixture while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon.
Once all the milk has been added and completely incorporated, bring the caramel to a boil and continue cooking for 3 full minutes while stirring constantly, then turn off the heat, transfer to a small bowl and set aside to cool.
When the caramel is cool enough and has the consistency of soft toffee, preheat your oven to 350oF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll the dough into 1” balls (size of a ping-pong ball) and place them at least 1” apart on the baking sheet ( an ice cream scoop works well for this!)
Sprinkle each cookie with chopped pecans then make an indentation in their center by pressing down gently with your finger.
Bake the cookies for 8 minutes and remove from oven. Immediately press centers again to recreate the indent. Cool for 5 minutes in the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack.
With wet hands, grab about a teaspoon of caramel from the bowl and shape it into some kind of a flat circle. Place that flat circles right into the cookies’ indents. (Don’t worry about shaping the centers perfectly; the warmth of the cookies will take care of that for you.) If you find that your caramel is too stiff and won’t flatten nicely, place it in the microwave for just a few seconds (really, a FEW, as in 5 to 10) to make it a tad more pliable, or place the cookies in the warm oven for a minute or two after having placed the caramel centers on all of them.
Lightly press half a pecan over each of the caramel centers and then drizzle with the melted dark chocolate.
Place the cookies in the refrigerator to cool completely and then store in a single layer in a cool, dry place for up to a week.