I am a sucker for a corny Valentine. Especially if a food pun is involved. Even though Little Devil is grown up and we are far removed from the days of school Valentines, I think I will always celebrate the day by making something fun and silly for friends and family. In the past I've done Coca-Cola Cupcakes (Valentine I SODA Like You) Copycat Beaver Nuggets (I'm EAGER to be your Valentine) and Banana Crumb Muffins (Valentine I'm BANANAS for you). In fact if you search "Valentine" on my blog, you'll see a lot of Valentine inspiration. Valentine's Day is right up there with my favorite holiday: Halloween. It's January 6th as I'm typing this and I already put out my Valentine's Day decorations. January is dreary and boring and I'm ready for fun! Last year, I made Turtle Cookie Balls with the theme of "I TURTLE-y Love You" and they were a huge hit. This made a large batch for sharing and the little no-bake cookie balls were surprisingly easy to make. They had all of the flavor of delicious turtle candy with chocolate, caramel and pecans in a fun and giftable cookie form. I found the cutest little containers for gifting and designed a little gift tag to go along with the theme. Valentine's Day is right around the corner and I'm already brainstorming ideas for this years punny, funny Valentine idea so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy a batch of Turtle Cookie Balls!
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| These cookie balls, reminiscent of a delicious chocolate-caramel-pecan turtle candy are great any time, and make an adorable gift or dessert. |
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| Perfect for Valentine's Day with the theme, "I TURTLE-Y Love You" |
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| All bagged up in the cutest Valentine cartons with matching gift bags. |
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| Boxed up and ready to go. All they need is a cute gift tag! |
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| Feel free to use my Turtle Valentine Gift Tag. Just click on the picture to enlarge it, right click to save the image and resize to your liking and print onto cardstock. |
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| Happy Valentine's Day! I would TURTLE-Y Love it if you made these Turtle Cookie Balls. |
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
approximately 70 vanilla wafer cookies, crushed (2 and 1/3 cups)
3 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping
16 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate (or chocolate almond bark) melted for dipping
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, crushed vanilla wafers and caramel topping until well blended. Shape into approximately 42 (1-inch) balls. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze for 10 minutes. (NOTE: I used my smallest cookie scoop to help me form the balls in the same size.) Remove the balls from the freezer and using a fork or dipping tool, dip into melted chocolate. Shake off the excess and place onto a waxed-paper lined tray. Sprinkle with the chopped pecans before the chocolate sets up. Refrigerate for 1 hour to allow the balls to firm up before serving.
