These delicious sea salt turtle cups are the perfect Christmas recipe for gifting that everyone is sure to enjoy and are made with only 5 ingredients (yay for 5 ingredient desserts and 5 ingredient Fridays!)

THE HOLIDAYS! They’re almost here! Imagine me looking shiftily from left to right…where did the time go?

I am stuck in the late summer of 2010…which is coincidentally when I met my husband. So I’m going to share something from that time: we went into a chocolate shop and I had my first sea-salted-chocolate-covered-caramel! My life was changed (not only because of discovering the sea salted chocolate…also because I had found the love of my life…my husband)!

It was such an experience in fact, that for our wedding favors we had sea salted chocolate caramels from that very same chocolate shop (we had them put a stick in the caramels and then used them as our seating cards-see below:)

Fast forward to this holiday season, and I realize that I am way behind on buying presents. In the past I’ve been done by this time, but this year? I’m pretty sure I have like 2 Christmas presents that I bought a few months ago, and that’s it. I blame it on baby Ben, in the best way possible 🙂

As I grocery shopping at the grocery store I came across their adorable holiday aisle and they had the cutest little nesting boxes. You can also buy nesting boxes online on Amazon (like these) or at your local craft store.

Bingo! I knew exactly what I was going to do: make edible gifts, these sea salted chocolate turtles!

I don’t know about you, but in my family part of every gift is required to be chocolate.  Not to throw my sister under the bus…but I just have to share this funny story: one year I went into her room at my parents’ house after we had opened presents and heard a rustling and saw her push something under the bed…curiosity peaked I asked what she was doing…and she was sitting in her room eating chocolates and had taken all the chocolate from my other sisters and was trying to hide the wrappers. I’m talking like 3 boxes of chocolate wrappers worth she was trying to hide in a gift bag LOL! So you can bet I’m making her a giant batch of these!

And they’re so easy to make:

You start by melting chocolate, then use a little throw-away paint brush and paint the bottom of little cups, let them cool, then when they’re done cooling you’ll add a pecan to each up, spoon in the caramel, cover with chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt.

The hardest part is waiting for them to cool

Yum! Just look at that ooey gooey center with the nuts, and then the gorgeous sea salt on top. Wrap them in a little nesting box and you’ll have the perfect Christmas present for that chocolate lover in your life!

After I made my first batch, I gave some to my husband to take to work, and this was the text I got:

So if you’re looking for the perfect Christmas gift giving recipe or recipe for a party look no further, I’ve got you covered. And I need to know: Have you ever had sea salted chocolate anything?

Yield: 24 Turtle Cups

Perfect Christmas Recipe for Gifting: Sea Salt Turtle Cups

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Prep Time 1 minute

Total Time 1 minute

Ingredients

• 2 Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 Cup pecan halves (I used roasted and salted pecans, plain pecan halves are ok too)
• 20 Caramel squares, unwrapped
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream (you want a little less than 1/4 cup, so if a drops remain in the measuring up you're ok)
• 1 Tbs Fleur de sel

Instructions

Line a mini muffin pan with 24 liners.

In a microwave safe bowl add about 1/3 of the chocolate chips. Microwave in 30 second intervals stirring in between each interval (mine took 2 minutes).

Use a clean throw away paint brush and brush the bottom and half up the sides of the liners with the melted chocolate. Place the muffin pan in the freezer for 15-30 min and allow the chocolate to cool.

Place a pecan half in each of the cups.

In a microwave safe bowl add the unwrapped caramels and the heavy cream. Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir, then microwave for another 30 seconds and stir when done. The caramel will bubble up and get smooth. If it isn't fully melted together microwave for another 15 seconds.

Drop a half a spoonful of caramel on top of the pecan.

In a microwave safe dish add the remaining chocolate chips. Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir, then microwave in 30 seconds intervals stirring in between until it is melted (mine took about 2 minutes and 10 seconds). Spoon chocolate on top of the caramel, then sprinkle little pinches of sea salt on top of the chocolate and allow to completely cool (this took 2 plus hours - I just let them sit overnight) then enjoy!