Decadent Chocolate Caramel Turtle Bars (Gluten Free/Lactose Free)

These turtle bars are the perfect mix of a candy bar meets a cookie. With the best combination of nutty caramel, and decadent chocolate you would never guess that these bars are both gluten and dairy free. 

Until I met my husband, I had no idea what turtle bars were, and I honestly thought it was the strangest thing when he would always ask me to make them. I remember vividly looking at him with the most bewildered look on my face saying “what on earth is a turtle?!?” since I was pretty positive he didn’t mean actual turtles…like the animal. Well little did I know that turtles are these absolutely delicious, melt in your mouth mix between a cookie and a candy bar, and they are out of this world amazing. 

Since they are my husbands favorite dessert to make around the holidays, it quickly became his “thing” in our house that he will make each year, and early on into our relationship was the one dessert he was determined to make gluten free/dairy free for me to be able to enjoy with him.

See this is the part about traditional meals or desserts that I love so very much. They have a story attached to them, that elicits memories, and traditions that go beyond what the food is itself. While yes these bars are both gluten free and lactose free that because that is a necessity for me, not because it makes them healthy. 

In fact there is pretty much nothing “healthy” about these bars other than the fact that like always I used very high-quality sourced ingredients, and that a healthy life includes indulgences just as much as it includes kale.

To make these bars both gluten free and dairy free, it actually is a pretty easy 1:1 sub for both the butter and the flour. So if you are reading this and you don’t need to be gluten/dairy free by all means use your regular all-purpose wheat flour (I still would recommend purchasing a high-quality source from a bakery or local coop) and regular organic butter.

I love Green Valley Organics Lactose Free Butter because it is organic, lactose free, and sourced from small farmers here in the USA. Not to mention it tastes amazing. But if you are vegan, I have also made this recipe using Earth Balance butter substitute as well. 

Lastly, instead of using brown sugar to make the caramel and sweeten the crust layer of this recipe we use an organic/fair trade certified turbinado sugar and organic fair trade certified molasses. Like all my recipes (even my baked goods) I am always very conscious about the sourcing of my ingredients, which is why we choose to use local/organic/fair trade certified goods as often as possible. 

This may not make this recipe necessarily healthier for you personally, but it does make the process of getting these ingredients into your home one that is so much more ethical, safer, and healthier for the laborers involved and the envronemt. 

But now onto the recipe. I hope you make these for your friends and family this holiday season and enjoy them as much as my family does. 

Decadent Chocolate Caramel Turtle Bars (Gluten Free/lactose Free)