A low carb turtle recipe using sugar free caramel sauce, almonds & sugar free chocolate to make delicious chewy candies suitable for any keto diet.
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These sugar free caramel candies are simply delicious. My daughter loved them so much that she bragged about them to all of her friends at school. And the mere mention of “no candies for dessert if you don’t eat your vegetables” had my kids cleaning their dinner plates of any stray morsel. I think you’ll enjoy this recipe, too.
If you’ve ever wondered how to make caramel sauce, you’re in luck because if you google “how to make caramel sauce” you’ll get 9 million hits of recipes and related content. The recipe for caramel is very simple, consisting of three main ingredients: water, sugar and heavy cream - any other ingredients (sea salt, butter, vanilla, brandy) are used simply to enhance the flavor of the caramel.
And, the procedure for making caramel is this:
- boil the water and sugar together until the sugar browns
- add the heavy cream and stir like crazy.
Sugar Free Caramel Sauce
Making a sugar free and low carb caramel sauce is easy to make, too. The ingredients are similarly few: heavy cream, butter, and erythritol. I also add the Sukrin Fiber Syrup which I feel helps give a superior texture and mouth-feel to the caramel. And, I like to add salt, vanilla, and a little brandy to make it extra special.
What I like about this easy low carb caramel recipe is that it can be made without condensed milk, made without corn syrup, and it can be made without a candy thermometer. A big WIN for me!
How to Make A Low Carb Turtle Recipe
Recently a reader asked if my homemade low carb caramel sauce could be used to make sugar free caramel candies or low carb pecan turtles. I love caramel candies - especially the combination of caramel, nuts and chocolate so I tweaked the recipe until I hit upon something that worked. For this low carb turtle recipe it “boiled down” to ingredient proportion and cooking time - literally!
The procedure for this sugar free erythritol caramel differs from a traditional caramel recipe but couldn’t be easier. Brown the butter, add the heavy cream, erythritol, and Sukrin fiber syrup and simmer/boil for 20 minutes for a softer stickier caramel candy, and 30 minutes for a firmer caramel candy.
Don’t skip the fiber syrup. I believe it helps discourage the erythritol from re-crystallizing. If you’ve ever made a dessert with erythritol before only to have it become “crunchy” a few days later, that was the erythritol pulling itself back into crystalline form. To prevent that from happening in my low carb dessert recipes I use less erythritol and augment sweetness with stevia.
This low carb caramel candy recipe uses stevia (stevia glycerite) to give it a bump in sweetness - and it needs the extra sweetness to achieve the proper flavor. In anticipation of being asked, I do not think an all Splenda caramel sauce is possible. But, if one is allergic to stevia or particularly sensitive to the taste, a few drops of something like EZ-Sweetz would do the trick to sweeten it nicely.
Before I turn you over to the recipe. I want to say something about the sugar free turtle candies you can get in the diabetic section in the grocery store, more specifically the Russel Stover Sugar Free Pecan Delights candies. They taste very good but beware! They contain an ingredient called maltitol to sweeten them. Not only does maltitol raise blood sugar, it also causes gastric distress, as anyone who has had more than two or three of the sugar free candies will most assuredly attest. My recipe is a sugar free candy that does not contain maltitol - your tummy will thank you!
Each Low Carb Caramel Turtle is 2 net carbs.
Low Carb Turtle Recipe
A low carb turtle recipe using sugar free caramel sauce, almonds and sugar free chocolate to make delicious chewy candies suitable for any keto diet.
4.72 from 14 votes
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes minutes
Servings: 40 candies
Calories: 86kcal
Author: Kim Hardesty
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole almonds toasted
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup Sukrin Gold (or Swerve)
- ¼ cup Sukrin Fiber Syrup Gold (or Vitafiber Syrup)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon Stevia Glycerite
- 1 tablespoon Brandy
- ½ cup sugar free chocolate chips
Instructions
To Toast the Almonds:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the almonds evenly on a sheet pan and bake for 10-15 minutes, stirring once half way through. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
To Make the Low Carb Caramel:
Put the butter into a medium pot oven medium heat. Cook the butter until it just begins to brown. Add the heavy cream, Sukrin Gold, Sukrin Fiber Syrup and salt. Stir to combine and bring up to a boil. If the mixture produces large explosive bubbles, stir to break the big bubbles into little bubbles. This phenomenon will quickly subside.
Continue to simmer the caramel mixture over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. The mixture should be simmering hard, but not crawling up the sides of the pot. Check periodically to make sure it's not burning - all burners are different! Then, remove the caramel from the heat and add the stevia glycerite, vanilla and brandy, stirring to combine. Let the low carb caramel cool for 5 minutes then add the almonds and stir.
To Make the Caramel Turtles:
Line a large sheet pan with a piece of parchment. Using a small dinner spoon, scoop up a spoonful of the caramel and almonds and drop it onto the parchment. Two sheet pans may be needed. Place the sheet pans with the low carb turtles in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Place the sugar free chocolate chips in a ceramic bowl over barely simmering water. When melted, drizzle the chocolate over the cold candies. If the chocolate gets cold, return it to the stove to warm again. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 40 low carb turtles at 2 g net carbs each.
Notes
Nutrition Facts Low Carb Turtle Recipe Amount Per Serving Calories 86Calories from Fat 72 % Daily Value* Fat 8g12% Saturated Fat 3g19% Polyunsaturated Fat 1g Monounsaturated Fat 3g Cholesterol 11mg4% Sodium 21mg1% Potassium 57mg2% Carbohydrates 5g2% Fiber 3g13% Protein 2g4% Vitamin A 150IU3% Calcium 20mg2% Iron 0.2mg1% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition
Calories: 86kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 57mg | Fiber: 3g | Vitamin A: 150IU | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 0.2mg
