Caramel, pecans, and dark chocolate are combined in this simple homemade caramel turtle bark candy. If you like chocolate turtles, you’re going to flip for this easy shortcut recipe!

Chocolate Turtles

Chewy caramel, crunchy pecans, and dark chocolate are combined in this simple homemade candy that is far better tasting than any turtle you can buy in the store.

I still can’t believe how much this tastes like store-bought chocolate turtles, only better, because well, dark chocolate makes everything better. (If dark chocolate isn’t your thing, feel free to make this with milk or semi-sweet chocolate instead.)

Chocolate Pecan Turtles

The caramel stays nice and the perfect soft and chewy, even straight out of the refrigerator, so consider yourself warned, this is going to call to you at all hours. I highly recommend making this turtle bark and immediately sharing it with some friends.

I’ve made this a couple of times now and played with the recipe a bit. If you are pressed for time, the bark is very simple, and other than the cooking time for the caramel, it comes together with just a few minutes effort.

Chocolate Pecan Turtles

While the bark is super simple to make and we love the variety of piece sizes and how easy it is to make and store. You can use this recipe for a more traditional chocolate pecan turtle.

If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, cut apart the caramel pecan layer into even size squares. Dip the individual pieces in chocolate to make bite-size turtle candies.

To dip the candies place the

Cream Cheese Mints melt in your mouth with a sweet peppermint flavor. They’re an old-fashioned holiday candy recipe that is a favorite for many people.

Kept pure white or colored however you like, pressed into molds or simply rolled and pressed with a fork, however you make these mints, they’re one of the easiest candy recipes of all time.

This recipe brings back a flood of memories for me. I remember sneaking to the dessert table more than a few times during my cousin’s wedding reception when I was a little girl and discovering these amazing little mints.

Wedding Mints

The mints I first tasted at my cousin Helene’s wedding were sweet minty delights that melted in my mouth. I was completely obsessed at first bite. I’d never had them before and they were irresistible!

After discovering cream cheese mints, I ate myself sick on them almost every time they were within reach. I grew older but my inability to control myself around these mints remained.

Years later, I discovered how easy they were to make when my friend Augusta shared her cream cheese wedding mints recipe with me.

I couldn’t believe how simple it was to make these candies! There are just three ingredients and you can dress them up however you like.

Cream Cheese Mints Recipe

Thanks to that childhood memory of gorging myself on Cream Cheese Mints at a wedding reception, this recipe for cream cheese mints is what I think of as a classic wedding mint.

Homemade mints are so much easier to make than I ever imagined. Unlike many homemade candies, cream cheese mints and old-fashioned butter mints don’t require any fancy ingredients or special equipment.

A combo of these mints on a dessert table is the perfect finishing touch for a holiday party. They’ll make a great addition to your cookie trays too.

You’ll only need three ingredients to make these cream cheese mints:

• cream cheese
• powdered sugar
• peppermint extract

That simple combination of ingredients creates a creamy sweet base that’s delicious just as is or as a canvas for adding fun extras.

Feel free to play with the recipe and find your favorite way to make them. You can press them into these silicone molds, roll them in sugar, or add food coloring if desired.

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Christmas Cookie Recipes Roundup

I’m pretty sure Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without all the Christmas cookie recipes. Ok, that isn’t true because all you really need for Christmas is Jesus, but that’s a whole different post. I’m going to let my stomach do the talking here and say that Christmas needs baking and cookies.

What are the Christmas cookies you remember from your childhood? Which ones does your family love now? I absolutely love the memories that come with the holidays that center on certain recipes. We are going to cover everything here — from the cutout sugar cookies that you frost with the kiddos to the gingerbread men that will be your most favorite Christmas cookie of all time. 

Gingerbread Cookies

I’m over here squealing because gingerbread is my favorite. I mean, is there anything that screams Christmas more than the smell of gingerbread filling the house? Heaven, people! Heaven!

Chewy Gingerbread Man Cookies

This is it. The best. My favorite. It is Christmas the minute these hit my mouth. I guarantee they are going to become your favorite too. They are perfectly spiced and so chewy. And that glaze is everything!

Gingerbread Man Sandwich Cookies

My kids love making these gingerbread sandwich cookies. The cookies are soft and chewy and they are filled with a creamy filling. And the M&Ms buttons are the cutest touch.

Tart cranberries and sweet apples are baked inside a brown sugar and oat crisp for a perfect not-to-sweet cranberry apple crisp.

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Old fashioned apple crisp has long been a stand by recipe for me. One that works for any occasion and no one seems to turn down, especially if it is warm and I add vanilla ice cream.

Take your apple crisp, add a bag of cranberries, yes an entire bag. Because who wants just a half cup of leftover berries floating around their fridge? And there you have it, a perfect cranberry apple crisp.

Well, that’s almost all there is to it. I do like tart things, but the crisp does need some sugar mixed with the fruit to help those cranberries.

I am always curious, who peels their apples for crisp? I admit I do not anymore. They cook down nicely and I am good with skipping that step. No one in my family seems to notice that I have started doing that.

I know cranberries are only available fresh in the late fall and early winter time frame but finding ways to enjoy them year-round has been my personal mission. Lucky for everyone they freeze extremely easily.

And to make it even easier, there’s nothing special to it. Just toss the bag in your freezer. I have found that frozen and fresh are quite interchangeable. There isn’t a recipe I have written yet that you can’t swap fresh for frozen and vice versa.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Not only is cranberry apple crisp delicious to eat I am in love with the bright red festive color of the berries contrasted by the white apple slices. To assemble your crisp toss the cranberries and apple slices with your sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

In fruit crisps I don’t always use cornstarch, however, it does help

Dark Chocolate Coconut Fudge is filled with sweet, chewy bits of coconut and then topped with a generous sprinkling of coconut.

Coconut Fudge

Talk about a seriously crunchy, chewy, chocolate-y fudge that will have you coming back for just a sliver more all night long. I enjoy sweets but can usually resist, as long as I get it out of my house quickly. Until I made this coconut fudge.

Have I mentioned before that coconut is my kryptonite? It makes me weak and destroys every ounce of sense: as evidenced by The Best Ever Coconut Pound Cake that I could easily polish off single-handed.

When you combine generous amounts of coconut with creamy dark chocolate fudge, it’s guaranteed to be an irresistible holiday treat.

Coconut Candy

I can not resist the fun of melting chocolate and transforming it into holiday fudge in just minutes! When I think back on all the times I stirred and stirred and stirred with a candy thermometer at my side while I made fussy candy recipes, I just think “never again.”

I love spending time in the kitchen and I enjoy making holiday treats, but I can make 6 different kinds of fudge in the time it takes to stir together one old-fashioned batch! You don’t have to tell Grandma this isn’t her family recipe.

Want a peek at this year’s quick and easy candy making? Chocolate Pecan Fudge, White Chocolate Caramel Fudge, and Peanut Butter Oreo Fudge are all great 5 Minute Fudge recipes! 

There I go getting distracted by all the fudge again. For this recipe, I love stirring in toasted coconut. Toasting the coconut for this isn’t required, but it will add an additional bit of crunch to the fudge and to the topping.