My Gluten-Free Vegan No-Cook Chocolate Covered Turtles (aka No-Bake Pecan Pie Bites) are an easy and heathy plant-based recipe to make without refined sugar or dairy and can be made in about 15 minutes with only 6 ingredients!
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Table of Contents
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
My top 3 favorite reasons:
- Can Be Made in About 15 minutes: You only need a food processor and it's a no-bake, no-cook, and no microwave needed.
- 100% Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Vegan: No butter, milk, or evaporated milk.
- Made With Only 6 Clean Ingredients: Pecans, Dates, Almond Butter, Coconut Oil, Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips, Himalayan Pink Salt.
Karielyn
Now you can enjoy delicious homemade vegan chocolate covered turtles without any baking or cooking. While most traditional pecan turtles contain dairy, my healthy recipe is 100% vegan!
You can feel good about making my healthy Chocolate Covered Caramel Turtles because they are plant-based, gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, tofu-free, and contain no refined sugar.
"Feel good about what you eat..."
- Karielyn Tillman
Ingredients
Here are the clean, real food ingredients I used to make this recipe. Try to use organic if possible.
- Pecans
- Medjool Dates
- Almond Butter
- Coconut Oil
- Enjoy Life Mini-Chocolate Chips
- Himalayan Pink Salt
That's it! My healthy Chocolate Covered Turtles recipe is super easy to make!
How To Make This Recipe: Step-by-Step Instructions
Here's how to make this recipe and I'll show you with step-by-step instructions below.
- Step 1 - Prepare the Caramel Mixture: Add all ingredients for the caramel to a food processor. Don't forget to remove the pits from the Medjool dates before adding them in.
- Step 2: Process on "high" speed until the mixture becomes a thick pasty-type consistency. You may need to stop and scrape the sides a couple of times.
- Step 3: Transfer the caramel mixture to a medium mixing bowl and add in the chopped pecans. Gently stir everything together until the pecans are evenly distributed.
- Step 4: Take out a spoonful at a time, gently roll the mixture between palms of your hands into a ball shape and then gently press it down into a flat round cookie or disk shape.
- Step 5 - Prepare the Chocolate Coating: Add all the ingredients for the chocolate topping to a small saucepan and melt on the lowest setting, stirring until it is melted and smooth and taking care not to burn it.
- Step 6 - Assembly: Take each turtle and gently place it in the saucepan with the melted chocolate and use a fork to gently flip it over to the other side.
- Step 7: Lift each turtle out of the chocolate mixture with the fork underneath it, letting the excess chocolate drip off before moving it to the cookie sheet.
- Step 8: Transfer the chocolate covered turtles to a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper. Optional: Sprinkle the tops with crushed pecans or flakey sea salt.
- Step 9: Put them in the freezer for approximately 30-60 minutes, or until they become hardened.
- Step 10: Store in the freezer in an air-tight BPA-free container until you are ready to serve because they will get soft and lose their shape at room temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
My recipe is!
However, most S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) recipes contain dairy in the form of half-and-half and butter in the form of store-bought caramels. Some homemade versions contain milk and even evaporated milk.
My healthy version is 100% vegan and gluten-free!
In my opinion, yes!
Traditional turtles (either store-bought or homemade) are made with lots of refined sugar and dairy.
S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Homemade Chocolate Covered Turtles:
Typical Ingredients: 7 ½ cups Pecan Halves, 8 tablespoons Butter, 2 cups Corn Syrup, ½ cup Milk, 2 cups Sugar, 1 twelve-ounce can Evaporated Milk, 1-pound Semi-Sweet Chocolate
S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Demet's Original Turtles:
Ingredients: Sugar, Pecans, Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Palm Oil, Invert Sugar Syrup, Milk Fat, and Less Than 1.5% of Lactose, Sodium Caseinate, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Artificial Flavors, Caramel Color
The homemade version contains butter, dairy and a LOT of refined sugar (both white and corn syrup). Store-bought also contains seed oil, GMO's (corn syrup, soy lecithin), dairy and artificial flavors.
My healthier version is made with clean, real food ingredients and is plant-based, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, no-bake, paleo-friendly and contains no refined sugar.
My Gluten-Free Vegan No-Cook Vegan Chocolate Covered Turtles are unique and special not only because they don't contain a lot of refined sugar and dairy, but for another reason.
Most chocolate turtle recipes are 4-5 pecans covered with a layer of store-bought caramel then topped with chocolate. I've even seen recipes using only one sad pecan.
Instead of making them the traditional way, with solid pecan halves, I used chopped pecans. And a lot of them!
I combined the chopped pecans with homemade caramel and then covered them in chocolate. So you have a crunchy, caramel pecan mixture with lots of pecans in every single bite.
I like them better this way because you get a true pecan flavor.
Yes! I used semi-sweet non-dairy chocolate but you could also use dark chocolate or sugar-free chocolate if you prefer.
Yes! Pecans are the main ingredient in this recipe, but you could change it up and use cashews, peanuts, or even almonds.
It's always better to make homemade when possible because you have control over the quality of the ingredients.
For example, store-bought S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) caramels have an ingredient lists like these:
Kraft Caramels Ingredients: Corn Syrup, Sugar, Skim Milk, Palm Oil, Whey (from Milk), Salt, Artificial and Natural Flavor, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier).
Werther's Soft Caramels Ingredients: Glucose Syrup (from Wheat or Corn), Sugar, Condensed Skim Milk, Palm Oil, Sorbitol Syrup (from Wheat or Corn), Cream, Whey, Butter, Contains 2% of Reduced Minerals: Whey, Salt, Sugar Cane Syrup, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Flavor.
These store-bought products not only contain GMO-ingredients like corn and soy, but they contain seed oil, wheat and dairy.
My homemade caramel recipe can be made in about 5 minutes with the following organic ingredients:
Medjool Dates
Almond Butter
Coconut Oil
Himalayan Pink Salt
Filtered Water
That's it!
The Medjool dates is used as a natural sweetener and binder, as well as the coconut oil. If you don't like the taste or smell of coconut oil, just use "refined" coconut oil which has zero coconut taste or smell!
You will need to store these in the freezer until you are ready to serve them because they will get soft and lose their shape if left out at room temperature due to the coconut oil softening.
You could place them in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes to soften them a little before serving.
These would not be ideal to pack in a lunch or travel with and are best to enjoy at home.
Both! I created them based off healthier ingredients of the traditional turtle recipe, but they also taste almost exactly the same as taking a bite of pecan pie!
So, if you are looking for a healthy no-bake turtle recipe or healthy no-bake pecan pie bites, you can make both with the same recipe!
If you're looking for more healthy no-bake desserts that taste like pecan pie, try these:
1. Pecan Pie Truffles
2. No-Bake Pecan Pie Bars
Both recipes are 100% gluten-free, vegan, no-bake and no refined sugar.
Karielyn's Expert Tips + Ingredient Substitutions
Here are some of my expert tips to make this recipe perfectly:
Almond Butter: Almond butter works best for the caramel in this recipe. You could also make homemade almond butter using your Vitamix. I like to make my own homemade almond butter because I have control over the quality of almonds that are used (raw, unpasteurized) and there are no unnecessary ingredients added. I haven't test another nut butter for the homemade caramel but if you want to experiment, I would try a neutral-flavored nut butter such as cashew butter or sunflower butter. I wouldn't recommend peanut butter because it wouldn't really taste like caramel anymore.
Medjool Dates: I used these not only as the natural sweetener in the recipe but also to bind the ingredients together. I would not recommend using a liquid or granular sweeter. Make sure to remove the pits from the dates before adding them to your food processor or blender.
Coconut Oil: I used this ingredient also as a binder. If you don't like the taste or smell of coconut oil, you can use "refined" coconut oil which has zero coconut taste or smell and will still bind the other ingredients once it hardens.
Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips: I like to use these because they are vegan and dairy-free. However, feel free to substitute with your favorite non-dairy chocolate chips. You could even try dark chocolate, semi-sweet, or sugar-free.
Himalayan Pink Salt: This is my salt of preference, however, feel free to use sea salt or whatever you have on hand.
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Gluten-Free Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Covered Turtles
Ingredients
For the caramel mixture:
- 1 ½ cups organic Medjool dates (pitted)
- 2 tablespoons organic almond butter
- 2 tablespoons water (filtered/purified)
- 1 tablespoon organic coconut oil
- 1 pinch Himalayan pink salt
For the mix-in:
- 1 cup organic pecans (chopped)
For the chocolate coating:
- 1 cup Enjoy Life mini-chocolate chips*
- 1 tablespoons organic coconut oil
Instructions
Prepare the caramel mixture:
- Add all ingredients for the caramel mixture to a food processor or Vitamix and blend on "high" speed until it becomes a thick, pasty-type consistency. You may need to stop and scrape the sides a couple of times.
- Transfer the caramel mixture to a medium mixing bowl and add the chopped pecans. Gently stir in until they are evenly distributed.
- Take out a spoonful at a time, gently roll them into the palms of your hands into a ball shape and then gently press them down into a flat disk shape. Set aside.
Prepare the chocolate coating:
- Add the ingredients for the chocolate topping to a small saucepan and melt on the lowest heat setting, stirring until it is melted and smooth and taking care not to burn it.
Assembly:
- Take each turtle and gently place it in the saucepan with the melted chocolate and use a fork to gently flip it over to coat the other side.
- Lift each turtle out of the chocolate mixture with a fork underneath it, letting the excess chocolate drip off before moving it to the cookie sheet.
- Transfer the chocolate covered turtles to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Optional: Sprinkle the tops with crushed pecans or flakey sea salt.
- Put them in the freezer for approximately 30 - 60 minutes, or until they become hardened.
- Store in the freezer in an air-tight BPA-free container until you are ready to serve because they will get soft and lose their shape at room temperature.
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Copyright Notice
The instructions, notes, and photographs for this recipe by Karielyn Tillman of The Healthy Family and Home™ website are copyrighted material. This copyrighted work is protected and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International License and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and cannot be legally used without my written permission.
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