Turtle Cookie Bars (Paleo, Gluten free, dairy free)

These turtle cookie bars are the perfect dessert. Drizzled in chocolate with a cookie bottom, caramel middle, and pecan cashew crunch, they taste amazing! You will love that they are also gluten free, dairy free and paleo.

Why these Turtle Cookie Bars are so good:

• Most importantly, they taste amazing! They have the perfect combination of a cookie bottom, soft caramel middle, cashew pecan crunch, all drizzled in chocolate
• They are gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and paleo. They can also be made vegan!
• If you are familiar with gluten free and paleo baking you should have all the ingredients to make these bars in your pantry
• These bars can easily be made vegan by replacing the egg with a flax seed egg

Equipment needed to make these Turtle Cookie bars:

• A standing mixer: this is the KitchenAid one that I use and love
• An 8″ x 8″ glass baking dish

How to make these Turtle Cookie bars:

First make the cookie layer:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Add all the cookie layer ingredients to the bowl of your standing mixer and mix until smooth
3. Line an 8″x8″ glass baking dish with parchment paper 
4. Place the dough into the glass dish and spread well until smooth (the batter is very sticky, so wet your spoon frequently to help spread the dough) 
5. Place in the baking dish in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted inside comes out clean 
6. Remove from the oven and let cool and then start making the caramel layer

To make the caramel layer:

1. Place all the ingredients into a glass bowl or measuring cup
2. Stir until smooth 
3. When the cookie layer has cooled, pour the caramel over it and spread until smooth, then make the nut layer

To make the nut layer:

1. Place the nuts into your food processor and blend until the nuts are the size you desire
2. Spread the chopped nuts over the caramel layer
3. Place the baking dish in the fridge and let cool for ~ 1 hour

To make the chocolate layer:

1. Break the chocolate bar into pieces and place it into a glass bowl or measuring cup
2. Heat on high in the microwave for 30 second intervals, until the chocolate has melted 
3. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the nut layer
4. Place the baking dish into the fridge for another ~30 minutes, until the chocolate hardens 
5. Cut the bars into desired sized pieces and enjoy!

Tips for making these Turtle Cookie bars:

• If you are allergic to almonds I would use cashew flour instead of almond flour
• If you don’t have cashew butter for the caramel layer I would substitute with almond butter
• To make these bars vegan, substitute the egg with a flax seed egg
• For the nut layer feel free to change the nuts. You could use only pecans, only cashews, or substitute with other nuts such as almonds
• I recommend using a coconut sugar sweetened chocolate bare (as coconut sugar has more health benefits than cane sugar) but if you are unable to find a coconut sugar sweetened chocolate bar, feel free to substitute with a dairy free dark chocolate bar that uses cane sugar – this is my favourite brand of chocolate that is sweetened with coconut sugar
• I recommend storing these bars in the fridge

Other desserts you will love:

• Paleo Chocolate Donuts
• Cranberry Lemon Bars
• Paleo Brownies with Caramel
• Paleo Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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