This Rolo Pretzel Turtle Recipe has a hard, salty pretzel layered with a caramel hidden inside a chocolate for a creamy inside topped with a crisp pecan. This salty and sweet treat is perfect for the holidays this season!

These are great to share or enjoy as a snack. If you love quick and easy candies like these try this Best Christmas Crack Recipe (Saltine Cracker Toffee), Ooey Gooey Chex Mix or Easy Crockpot Candy.

Rolo Pretzel Turtle Recipe

Simple and quick treat that is perfect for making on a winter day.

My girls love this Rolo pretzel turtle recipe.

They know just how to lay the pretzels out perfectly, add the Rolo on top and gently press down on the pecan.

It makes for a ooey gooey chocolate turtle treat.

Delicious and so fun to have little fingers apart of it all.

We love to make these for neighbor gifts, leaving them out as a snack or just indulging on them right when they get out.

These Rolo pretzel turtle treats are just what you need this holiday season!

What you need to make Rolo pretzel turtles

Simple ingredients for a simple recipe that is a total sweet and salty treat perfect for the holidays.

Only three ingredients to make these Rolo pretzel turtle recipe easy and kid friendly.

You will love the simplicity of it all and how tasty they are when they melt in your mouth.

• Snap pretzels: this gives more of a base for the Rolo to melt on.
• Rolo candies: has a caramel middle with a chocolate covering.
• Pecan halves: gives the look of a turtle and adds a soft textured crunch that pairs well with other ingredients.

How to make Rolo pretzel turtles

• Prepare pretzels and preheat oven: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. On a baking sheet arrange the pretzels in a single layer on parchment paper. Place a unwrapped rolo on top each pretzel.
• Bake and press pecan on chocolate: Bake for 4 minutes and remove from the oven. Press a pecan half into the top of the warm chocolate. Let cool completely.

Variations of making Rolo chocolate turtles

There are so many fun variations you can make for the Rolo chocolate turtle recipes.

Mixing chocolate and specialty nuts over the salty pretzel is just SO fun.

Different candies for holidays or even sprinkling some extra sea salt for a delicious flavoring.

All these variations are just what you need to make this turtle recipe fun and delicious for the holidays!

• Chocolate: mini chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, Hershey kisses. m and m’s, Reese’s pieces or white chocolate.
• Caramel: you can use whole caramel candy, melted caramels or use my Homemade Caramels recipe.
• Nuts: crush up nuts or a mixture of nuts, walnuts, almonds or cashews for a fun flavor.
• Topping: Coconut flakes, sea salt or mini marshmallows.
• Pretzels: leave out the pretzels or use the looped pretzel. Try to find them with a good base that won’t leave a mess and hold it together.

Tips on making Rolo chocolate turtles

• Toast pecans: toasting pecans adds a more flavorful taste. Use a skillet to toast for one to two minutes.
• Don’t worry: these don’t have to be perfect, it is best to work fast.
• Line pans: silicone liners work really well or parchment paper will work too.
• Caramels: microwave your caramels if you are not using a Rolo. This is a quicker way to melt your caramel. If your caramel starts to harden, simply add it back into the microwave to reheat.
• Chocolate: to melt your chocolate, add in a bit of oil to help melt your chocolate in the microwave if you are not using a Rolo.

Love turtle desserts?! Try these too!

• Turtle Brownies 
• Turtle Pecan Bars
• Turtle Rice Krispie Treats
• Frosted Turtle Brownies
• Turtle Cookies

More holiday treats

• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Amazing Salted Caramel Popcorn
• Slow Cooker Cinnamon Almonds
• The Best Peanut Brittle Recipe
• Roasted Cinnamon Sugar Candied Nuts

 

Open-Faced Turkey Melts make a quick and easy way to use up your Thanksgiving turkey leftovers!

Open-Faced Turkey Melts

My favorite turkey salad made with cranberries and celery is even better when served open-faced with melted cheese! This hot turkey sandwich is an easy lunch recipe the whole family will love. Serve it with some Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup for dinner!

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The post Open Faced Turkey Melts appeared first on Skinnytaste.

There’s not much I love more than rich and buttery scones, but this version of Whole Wheat Cranberry Scones is a nice, healthy alternative when the craving strikes.

If you’re looking to lighten things up this holiday season, these scones might be a good place to start.  They’re made with less butter than a classic recipe for scones, and they’re made with low fat buttermilk in place of cream. Whole wheat cranberry scones are dusted with powdered sugar, but you can always add a sweet glaze if you prefer more of a sweet topping.

These scones are made with a combination of white and whole wheat flour. The combination is perfect. I wouldn’t try making them with all whole wheat flour as they’ll come out too dense, and the flavor won’t be ideal.

How to make Whole Wheat Cranberry Scones:

Whisk together the dry ingredients, and then cut in cold butter until the mixture is crumbly (similar to the way you make pie crust). Then you’ll mix in dried cranberries and orange zest… then egg and buttermilk. You’ll handle the dough ingredients gently by stirring the ingredients together with a fork. Next you’ll gather the dough into a ball, pat it into a circle and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

The circle of dough is cut into wedges, just like a pie. You won’t pull the wedges apart- just leave them be. And then you’ll bake it for 20 minutes. After baking, you’ll sprinkle with powdered sugar and then take a serrated knife and slice the scones into individual wedges.

Topping for these scones:

There’s a simple dusting of powdered sugar on these scones to keep them very light. If you’d like to sweeten things up, you can add a glaze to the tops of the scones. In a medium bowl, whisk together one cup of powdered sugar with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk. Drizzle the vanilla glaze on top of the scones and let them sit until the glaze has firmed up a bit.

If you’re following Weight Watchers, they’re a bit of a splurge… but they’re do-able counting 8 points per scone. With so many indulgent things around us during the holidays, it’s nice to have a slight reprieve from all of the guilt. That being said, I do prefer to add the icing option to the top of these!!  But that’s part of my sugar addiction, I guess. Happy holidays, and enjoy!

Here are a few more recipes for scones you might like to try:

• Double Orange Scones with Orange Butter
• Blueberry Lemon Scones
• Copycat Starbucks Vanilla Bean Scones
• Chocolate Chip Scones
• Strawberry Buttermilk Scones
• Fresh Peach Scones
• Cranberry Orange Scones
• Snickerdoodle Scones

The post Whole Wheat Cranberry Scones appeared first on Recipe Girl®.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies are must-have holiday cookies that are also perfect for everyday occasions. The classic pairing of peanut butter and chocolate in these cookies will delight chocolate peanut butter lovers and cookie lovers of all ages.

Chocolate and peanut butter is sure a match made in heaven, I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t love this classic pairing. If you love this flavor pairing, you’ll want to try these amazing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cookies, these incredible Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge, or these super easy No Bake Buckeye Peanut Butter Balls.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

These peanut butter blossom cookies are very easy to make. One batch makes about 24 to 25 small cookies, the perfect size for snacking and enough to pass around the office during the holiday season.

What you need to make peanut butter blossom cookies

The wet ingredients:

• Butter – pretty much all cookies start with butter, creamed to incorporate air into the cookies, and it makes cookies taste delicious.
• Peanut Butter – you can’t make peanut butter blossoms cookies without peanut butter. Creamy peanut butter is the way to go, but chunky will work too if you like bits of peanuts in your cookies. Both store-bought and homemade peanut butter will work in this recipe.
• Brown Sugar – to sweeten these delicious cookies.
• Egg – is a binder to keep everything together.
• Vanilla Extract – to enhance flavor.

The dry ingredients:

• Flour – nothing fancy, just good old all-purpose flour.
• Salt – to enhance flavor.
• Baking soda and baking powder – for leavening.
• Chocolate Kisses – I like dark chocolate, but you can use any kind.

How to make peanut butter blossoms cookies

You can make the cookie dough in a stand mixer or with a handheld electric mixer. Creaming butter by hand is possible, but you gotta love modern technology, helping us make cookies even faster.

1. Prepare the cookie dough: Cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugar first. Then add egg and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Finally, stir in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
2. Portion the cookie dough: Use a cookie scoop to divide the dough into 24 – 25 similar size portions and roll into balls, then refrigerate before baking.
3. Bake the cookies: Bake one baking sheet at a time in the middle of the oven until the edges of the cookies are light brown.
4. Adding the “blossoms”: Remove the baking sheet from the oven and press a chocolate kiss on each cookie while they’re still warm. Let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the baking sheet. This will allow them to finish baking from the residual heat and give the chocolate time to harden and stick to the cookies before moving them.

 

Tips for making peanut butter blossoms cookies

• Be sure to allow refrigerated ingredients (butter and egg) to come to room temperature before making the cookie dough.
• I like to portion the cookie dough before refrigerating because it is easier to scoop. This way if you end up leaving the dough in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, you don’t have to wrestle with a hard dough in the bowl.
• You could roll the dough balls in sugar before baking for a sparkly look. You could also use red and green sanding sugar for the holidays.

Storing peanut butter blossom cookies

Keep these cookies in an airtight container on your countertop, you do not need to refrigerate them. They will last up to a week, that is if you have excellent self-control.

More peanut butter recipes you’ll love!

• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
• Peanut Butter Pinwheel Candy
• Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Pressure cooker oatmeal is an easy breakfast! The best Instant Pot oatmeal is made with rolled oats, toasted until fragrant then cooked for just 3 minutes.

Here’s an easy, healthy breakfast recipe for weekdays or entertaining guests: Instant Pot oatmeal! Alex and I eat quite a bit of oatmeal over here: it’s one of our favorite whole grains. In fact, most days I eat our best oatmeal recipe as a healthy way to start the day. But if you’ve got a pressure cooker, oatmeal is even easier to make. The oats are toasted in butter until fragrant, then mixed with milk and cooked for just 3 minutes. (Vegan variation is too, below.) What comes out is the creamiest, tastiest, easiest pressure cooker oatmeal you’ll find.

Looking for steel cut oats instead? Go to Apple Cinnamon Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats.

How to make Instant Pot oatmeal (a tutorial)

This is truly one of our easiest Instant Pot recipes! It’s so fast and it makes the creamiest, most delicious pot of oatmeal using rolled oats. Using a pressure cooker to make oatmeal is perfect for whipping up a healthy breakfast when you’re entertaining house guests. Alex and I just had my parents in town for the weekend, and it was the perfect breakfast for house guests because it’s mostly hands off. We made a double recipe: see the section below about scaling up this recipe.

Step 1: Use Saute mode to toast the oats for 3 minutes.

The first step to make the very best Instant Pot oatmeal is to toast the oats. Now, you could just go right into cooking. But we’ve found that toasting oats in butter or coconut oil before cooking makes them taste exponentially better! (We do this in our Toasted Oatmeal & Best Oatmeal recipes.)

To toast the oats, turn on Saute mode on your Instant Pot. Melt 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, then add 2 cups rolled oats and stir often for about 3 minutes. Side bonus: It makes your kitchen smell divine!

Step 2: Cook on High for 3 minutes.

All you need for the perfect Instant Pot oatmeal is 3 minutes! Add 1 1/2 cups milk (or almond milk), 1 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and kosher salt. Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.

Step 3: Quick release and stir!

That’s it! Remove the steam from the pot by performing a Quick Release (see the recipe below for instructions if you’re an Instant Pot newbie). Then give it a stir and you’re ready to go!

Scaling up Instant Pot oatmeal (x 2, x 3!)

This recipe calls for 2 cups rolled oats, which makes 2 large or 3 moderate servings. Instant Pot oatmeal is perfect for entertaining, so you can easily scale this up. Try doubling or tripling this recipe to make enough for many eaters.

One thing to note: doubling and tripling slightly increases prep time! The Instant Pot requires time to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it cooks. This time takes longer the more ingredients you have in the pot. So doubling and tripling the recipe increases the overall time to make it because of the preheat time. A doubled recipe takes about 10 minutes to preheat and tripled takes about 15 minutes. Of course, it will still take the same amount of time to cook: just 3 minutes! Just make sure to adjust your expectation of the prep time accordingly.

Ideas for oatmeal toppings!

The fun of oatmeal is not so much the oatmeal itself: it’s in the toppings! Here are our best ideas for how to top your Instant Pot oatmeal:

1. Banana slices, toasted walnuts, and maple syrup (shown in the photo!).
2. Peanut butter and healthy strawberry jelly.
3. Fresh blueberries, maple syrup and lemon zest.
4. Almond butter, cinnamon and roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas).
5. Dried cherries, honey and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

What are your favorite oatmeal toppings? Let us know in the comments below! (Mine is #2, if you’re wondering.)

What type of Instant Pot to use?

All pressure cooker brands vary! The brand we use is an Instant Pot 6 Qt Programmable Pressure Cooker. This recipe is customized for a 6 quart pressure cooker. We also can’t speak to other brands and types of pressure cookers. For example, Instant Pot Mini works differently, so use it at your own risk.

This Instant Pot oatmeal recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free and vegan.

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More healthy breakfast recipes

Here are a few more healthy breakfast recipes we love:

• Homemade Acai Bowl This bright, colorful smoothie bowl is full of healthy toppings.
• Best Blender Muffins These banana muffins are easy to whip up in a blender and freeze for instant breakfast.
• Best Instant Oatmeal Recipe Easiest breakfast ever! Make up this mix and throw it in the microwave on busy mornings.

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes