Everyone needs a good dairy cookie. Sometimes you just gotta use the butter for the goods. But This recipe has been tried and tested with ghee, and you all know how I feel about ghee. If you don’t here’s a quick recap for you:

Ghee benefits

• slightly more short chain fatty acids (namely butyric acid) than regular butter
• a great source of DHA (omega 3 fatty acids) which are known to release anti-inflammatory enzymes
• high smoke point, making it almost impossible to turn rancid as most refined oils commonly do
• it tastes just as yummy as butter without the presence of the milk solids (ie it’s lactose and casein free!)

If you don’t have ghee at home, you can totally sub the ghee for butter and the recipe is just as yummy. But if you are looking to get your hands on some ghee, there are three brands I have seen available to us Israelis. The first is sometime sold at Nitzat Haduvdevan but in my experience it’s quite pricey and you can get a better bang for your buck elsewhere. Though the quality seems to be pretty top of the game. The second is KTC brand, imported from the UK. I’ve seen it floating around the smaller health food store chains as well as at specialty cake shops like Mr. Cake. It’s slightly cheaper than the Nitzat brand. The last brand, which I’ve found to be the cheapest, is Organic Valley, but this is only available on iherb. Maybe worth checking out my iherb Essentials list and getting on that order 😉

Recipe Notes and Variations

• Flour: I have been successful with whole spelt, white spelt, and even whole wheat. Have yet to try a gluten free version so I will have to report back!
• Cocoa powder: My most favorite cocoa powder in Israel to date is Shaked Tavor. Just quality and makes the yummiest creations. Rich and so chocolatey. In my opinion, if you’re making a chocolatey dessert, this is a must. But feel free to prove me wrong and let me know which brands of cocoa powder worked for you in this recipe.
• Maple syrup: If you don’t have maple syrup on hand you can swap for date syrup or honey. In fact, the date syrup works marvelously well in the sandwich filling and gives the salted caramel a whole new depth of flavor. In a good way!
• Coconut sugar: swap for brown sugar or cane sugar 1:1
• almond butter: use any nut butter. I’ve tried with almond and cashew butter and both have turned out incredibly decedent. Peanut butter will change the flavor profile slightly, but still yummy.
• Dairy free version: you can swap any of the ghee or butter with coconut oil, but this will obviously give the cookie a coconuty flavor, so bear that in mind

That’s it peeps. This one is worth it. One last note: you’re going to find yourself wanting to double or triple the recipe because it doesn’t last too long.

Can’t get easier than this. These non bake, gluten free balls of heaven are going to become a staple here. And because it has a dairy free variation, this will definitely be at our house every shabbat. Perfect for every season. Light and crunchy for the summer heat, but also so decadently rich to have with a nice hot cup of joe in the winter months.

Not going to get too wordy here because these bad boys speak for themselves. But I will say that I made these for Shabbat this past week with my husband’s family here. They were polished off within a few hours. So even though the recipe yields 36 turtle, I’d double and just pop em in the freezer to have on hand!

Notable Products

Also quick product info: I find it hard to come by rice krispies here in Israel. Been making my rice krispies with B&D puffed brown rice for years, and this recipe uses them as well. Did not disappoint. You can find it at any supermarket in the gluten free section, but also at most health food stores. Here’s the product for reference.

Recipe Variations

One more important note and then I’ll get to the recipe, I promise.

• Don’t want to spend time making all the individual “turtle?” No problem! pour the rice mixture into a 9X13″ pan, freeze for an hour, then pour the melted chocolate mixture on top. Easy peasy.
• You can also totally swap the peanut butter out for almond butter. Just make sure it’s runny so that you can coat everything evenly.
• Same goes with honey for maple syrup. In fact the honey version of the recipe actually holds much better so definitely go for the swap!

Enjoy guys!

Xoxo