If you are trying to find a new special occasion pie recipe for your family, this salted pecan turtle pie without cream cheese is the one. In my family, chocolate and nuts rule when it comes to desserts.
There are so many turtle dessert varieties out there these days, aren’t there? Turtle candy, chocolate turtle cookies, turtle cakes, turtle cookies. We even had a chocolate turtle caramel apple for dessert this fall, picked up from a local farm. So why not enjoy a salted caramel pecan pie with chocolate while we are at it?
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Ingredients
- 9-inch pie crust – Store-bought or your favorite homemade pie crust
- Light corn syrup
- Dulce de leche condensed milk (we like Nestle)
- Vanilla extract
- Sea salt
- Eggs
- Caramel chocolate baking chips
- Chopped pecans
- Caramel sauce (use some reserved from the pie filling or use additional store-bought caramel if you want a lot for garnish)
Aside from the dulce de leche and caramel chocolate baking chips, everything else is a typical kitchen staple that I keep on hand.
Substitutions
- You can use dark corn syrup if that is what you have on hand. The filling will turn a bit darker, and the flavor will have a deeper caramel taste.
- If you cannot find the caramel chocolate baking chips, you can use plain chocolate chips and amp up the caramel sauce during the garnish step to compensate for the lack of caramel chips. We use the Lily’s caramel chocolate baking chips.
What is the Best Pie Crust for Salted Pecan Turtle Pie?
Most of the time, I use a regular Pillsbury pie shell for this recipe. Usually with the hustle and bustle going on during a special occasion time, I am in a super hectic kitchen mode. This is because I am typically trying to make a ton of other food at the same time I’m working on this pie.
If I’m feeling fancy free, I will make my own pie crust from scratch. But thank goodness for store-bought pie crusts! You can apply some easy pie crimping techniques as a way to elevate store-bought pie crusts.
Making The Filling for Our Chocolate Turtle Pie
For the dulce de leche, you may choose an authentic locally-made or store-bought dulce de leche cream. Personally, I usually keep the Nestle La Lechera Dulce de Leche condensed milk. It lasts a long time in the pantry, and it is versatile for so many recipes!
The process starts with heating the corn syrup and dulce de leche mixture on the stove, and then letting that cool down. This will become your “caramel.”
It is actually a pretty simple recipe if you follow each step properly.
You might consider using a pie guard in the oven to prevent your pie shell from over-browning during the first 30 minutes of the bake time. I only own one silicone pie crust shield. I need to order more as sometimes I like to bake two pies at once, and I have to rig up a foil rim for the second pie.
Garnish for Salted Pecan Turtle Pie
Personally, I prefer this dulce de leche pecan pie just as is detailed in the recipe card below – with only the caramel sauce and the sea salt on top so those ingredients can really shine.
The key to this perfect pie is to wait and drizzle the caramel sauce over each individual slice just as you are serving. This is also when you sprinkle on the sea salt. You would not want to drizzle on the caramel sauce any earlier as you would get a soggy crust.
Of course, if you so desire, you could drop a small dollop of whipped cream on the very top just as you are serving dessert.
Bake Time
As with many pecan pies, bake time can vary based on your own oven. At my house, this pie takes closer to 50 minutes. At my mom’s house, the pie is ready at 45 minutes. When pulling from the oven, the pie should be a little jiggly in the center, but not super jiggly. And it should firm up after setting.
Salted Caramel Turtle Pie
Ingredients
- 1 cup Light corn syrup
- 7 oz Dulce de leche We like Nestle.
- 3 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- ¾ cup Caramel chocolate baking chips We like Lily's.
- 1¼ cup Pecans chopped
- 1 Pie crust 9 inch; store bought or homemade
- Caramel sauce for garnish (optional if you want extra caramel)
- Sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium sized saucepan add the cup of corn syrup and 7 ounces of dulce de leche. Heat on medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
- Boil for 3-5 minutes until the mixture has thickened up to the consistency of caramel and small bubbles have formed. Add the vanilla and teaspoon of sea salt.
- Remove from heat and set to the side to cool for 15 minutes or so.
- Remove ¼ cup of the dulce de leche mixture to reserve for garnish later.
- Add the warm (not hot) dulce de leche mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Beat in three eggs, one at a time. Mix until combined.
- Spread the pecans over the top of the thawed pie crust. Layer the caramel chocolate chips over the pecans.
- Pour the dulce de leche mixture evenly over the pecans and caramel chocolate chips and fill to 1/4 inch from the top of the crust. (Do not overfill as you will have issues transporting the pie into the oven without spilling it. You can use a baking sheet beneath the pie to help avoid a mess.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. (Ovens vary on bake time. Start checking at 45 minutes to see if the pie has firmed up. When ready, there will still be a slight jiggle to the center, but the rest of the pie will seem firm.)
- Allow to cool and set up completely on the counter for 6 hours.
- When serving, drizzle the reserved dulce de leche caramel sauce on top of each cut pie slice and sprinkle with sea salt.
Notes
Nutrition
More Desserts from Planted in Arkansas
If you enjoyed our rich salted pecan turtle pie, try out some of our other desserts!
No Bake Coconut Pecan Praline Cookies
White Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Almond Cookies
Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Buttery Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with Snickers
No Bake Cranberry Pecan Cookies
Easy Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Buttercream (huge hit)
Butter Pecan Praline Poke Cake (Number ONE recipe on the blog!)
Coconut and Pineapple Cream Cheese Pie
Tangy Key Lime Pie (one of our favorites!)
Blue-Raspberry Frosted Lemonade
Lemonade Drinks (some frozen varieties here)
Air Fryer Peaches with Ice Cream
Pumpkin Pie with Condensed Milk
Copycat Cracker Barrel Coca Cola Cake
Creamy Lemon Pie with Sour Cream
Denise
Just like the other person who commented, I also experienced problems with making the caramel. I did the exact same thing, where I let the caramel cool slightly before adding it to the eggs. But I added it to the eggs, the whole thing hardened. I threw it out and never finished the recipe.
Amy
Huge apologies, Denise! I spent this weekend going back over this recipe, and I saw immediately what the issue was. The amount of dulce de leche condensed milk was supposed to be 7 ounces – not 2! That is what led to the over-hardening of the caramel sauce. I made three more pies this weekend – tweaking and modifying the recipe to an easier process with fewer ingredients. I have edited both the recipe card and the post with the changes made. Thank you for bringing these issues to my attention. I had no idea the quantity was mistyped in the recipe card. I feel horrible that your dessert was ruined – especially considering how expensive ingredients are these days.
Keels
This recipe is misleading and just does not chemically make sense. I followed the directions on mixing the butter, corn syrup and sugar to a tee. Did not let it cool completely but enough so it wouldn’t scramble the eggs (that had been sitting out at room temp all day). By the time it had cooled (I gave it like 5 minutes) the Carmel had hardened to a very chewy texture and became even HARDER when I added it to the egg mixture. It would have been impossible to “mix in” as the instructions say. There was no way to emulsify this pure liquid (the eggs) and the essentially almost solid chewy Carmel. To fix this I added the Carmel like mixture back onto the burner at medium heat, added about 2tbs of butter and about a 1/3 cup of heavy cream, pulled it off the burner once it was closer to a liquid and immediately streamed it into the eggs while whisking the entire time until it was emulsified.
It’s in the oven now. And the concept is good and I’m sure everything together will be tasty. My fiancée specifically wanted this pie for his birthday today. I’m praying it will live to his expectations. I’m just personally disappointed in the misleading directions. If someone who has very little to no experience in baking tried this recipe they would certainly run into the same issue and possibly not know how to rectify the situation.
Amy
Oh, my goodness! I’m so sorry, Keels! I spent this weekend going back over this recipe, and I saw immediately what the issue was. The amount of dulce de leche condensed milk was supposed to be 7 ounces – not 2! That is what led to the over-hardening of the caramel sauce. I made three more pies this weekend – tweaking and modifying the recipe to an easier process with fewer ingredients. I have edited both the recipe card and the post with the changes made. Thank you for bringing these issues to my attention. I had no idea the quantity was mistyped in the recipe card. Again, I’m sorry about your fiancee’s birthday dessert being ruined! I feel terrible.