Easy turtle pie has a creamy caramel filling, crunchy oreo crust, and is topped with buttery pecans, salted caramel sauce, and chocolate chips. It's an indulgent no-bake pie that's also customizable and freezer-friendly, with make-ahead instructions provided.
This caramel turtle pie recipe is inspired by the store-bought Edwards turtle creme pie, but it's fresher, creamier, and homemade. It's those turtle candies made of caramel, pecans, and chocolate that everyone loves, but in pie form!
For this rich dessert, we start with a chocolatey oreo crust, then make a creamy cheesecake filling made with a homemade salted caramel sauce (but you can also use store-bought sauce if you prefer). The pie is finished with buttery pecans, chocolate chips, and drizzled with more caramel sauce.
It might just be one of my favorite desserts I've ever made. It's true.
For more no bake pie recipes, try no bake chocolate pie and black forest pie.
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⭐️ Why This Pie is the Best
- Thick & creamy salty-sweet caramel chocolate pie with a crunchy oreo crust and topped with buttery pecans, chocolate chips, and drizzled with caramel sauce (don't miss my homemade salted caramels!)
- No bake turtle cheesecake, so no need to turn on your oven
- Customizable recipe for turtle pie so you can make a graham cracker crust, use store-bought caramel sauce, or even make mini pies using a muffin tin.
- Make ahead instructions provided so you can make it at your convenience
- Freezer-friendly turtle pie
- Easy enough for a weeknight but special enough for your holiday table
💬 Where Did Turtle Flavors Originate?
The flavor of turtles is credited to DeMet's Turtles, which created a candy made of pecans, caramel, and chocolate, and is shaped like a turtle. Turtle pie takes the flavor of that candy and reinvents it in creamy pie form, using a chocolate cookie crust, caramel cheesecake filling, and pecans as the topping.
🍫 Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted butter - Using unsalted butter helps us control the amount of salt in our pie.
- Heavy cream - We use this to make whipped cream, creating a light and airy cream pie filling.
- Salt - Because we make salted caramel here, there is a generous amount of salt in the caramel recipe. However, you can easily use half the amount if you want more of a traditional caramel flavor.
- Chocolate wafer cookies - You can use wafer cookies or just scrape the cream filling out of oreos and use the cookies.
- Cream cheese - Make sure your cream cheese is softened at room temperature to avoid a lumpy filling.
- Powdered sugar - Using powdered sugar in our cheesecake filling creates a smooth texture because it contains cornstarch.
- Pecans - Adds a buttery & crunchy topping to our turtle dessert. If you love pecans, try my butterscotch pecan pie and chocolate chip pecan cookies!
- Chocolate chips - Adds additional crunch and more chocolate flavor.
📝 Variations & Substitutions
- Graham cracker crust. Swap the oreo crust for a graham cracker crust for a more molasses-forward pie that's less chocolatey.
- Use store-bought salted caramel sauce if you want to skip the homemade version.
- Gluten-free version: Substitute gluten-free oreo cookies for similar results.
- Vegan/dairy-free: Substitute with non-dairy butter, cream cheese, and chocolate chips, and use chilled coconut cream in place of heavy whipping cream for a dairy free version.
- Mini-pies. Use a muffin tin to make mini caramel turtle pies.
🔪 How to Make Easy Turtle Pie
Make the Salted Caramel Sauce
In a medium saucepan, melt the sugar over medium heat, using a metal whisk to the stir the sugar. It will turn into clumps of sugar at first, but keep stirring until sugar is completely melted, about 5 minutes. After sugar is melted, let it sit for about 1 minute, until it turns an amber color. Remove from heat.
Add in half of the butter and stir until it's completely melted (it will bubble up quite a bit). Add in remaining butter and stir until thoroughly combined. Pour in half of the heavy cream and stir (this will also bubble up). Add in remaining heavy cream and stir until completely combined.
Add in salt and vanilla extract and combine well. *If your caramel hardens up, gently re-heat over low heat until it's soft enough to incorporate vanilla. Pour sauce into a glass container and allow it to cool completely before using.
Make the Oreo Crust
Place cookies, butter, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor and blend for several minutes, until you've achieved a mixture of fine crumbs. Pour into a 9" pie pan and press mixture on bottom and up the sides of pan. Chill until ready to fill (at least 30 minutes).
Make the Pie
In a medium-sized bowl, use an electric hand-mixer to beat the cream cheese for roughly 2 minutes. Next, add the powdered sugar and ½ cup of the salted caramel sauce. Mix on low just until combined, then increase the speed to high and mix until smooth.
Into the bowl of a stand mixer, pour heavy cream and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high until medium peaks form. Add the whipped cream to your caramel cream cheese mixture and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the whipped cream until it's fully combined and there are no streaks left (this will take a few minutes).
Spread turtle pie filling over oreo crust and cover the pie with tented foil. Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, drizzle remaining caramel sauce over pie and sprinkle with chopped pecans and chocolate chips.
👩🏼🍳 Expert Tips
- Storage: Store (covered) pie in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- How to freeze: Wrap individual slices in foil and place in a freezer storage bag. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw, place in refrigerator overnight.
- Make ahead: This pecan turtle pie can be assembled and stored in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. Right before serving, drizzle with remaining caramel sauce, and top with pecans and chocolate chips.
- Use softened cream cheese. This will prevent a lumpy cheesecake filling.
- Chill pie. Make sure that you chill your assembled pie for at least 6 hours to help it set up.
- Serve your pie topped with chocolate covered pecans for a playful twist.
- Refrigerate oreo crust for at least 30 minutes before adding filling.
- Thick sauce. If you use store-bought caramel sauce, make sure that it's thick caramel sauce and not thin caramel syrup.
- Cool sauce completely. If you do make homemade caramel sauce, be sure to cool it completely before using. To cool it faster, place it in the freezer for 20 minutes, giving it a good stir every 5 minutes.
- Fold gently. When incorporating whipped cream into turtle pie filling, make sure that you gently fold it in using a rubber spatula. This will prevent the whipped cream from deflating, keeping it light and airy.
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
This dessert pie is a play on the candies made with caramel, pecans, and chocolate that resemble turtles. It's also known as turtle cream pie, turtle cheesecake, and frozen turtle pie. Pre-made frozen pies are sold by brands like Edwards and Marie Calendar's.
Credit is often given to The Velvet Turtle for creating this cheesecake made of caramel, pecans, and chocolate.
It's named after the turtle candies made of pecans, caramel, and chocolate, which look like turtles.
🥧 More Pie Recipes
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Easy Turtle Pie Recipe
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer
Ingredients
For the Salted Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (cubed)
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Oreo Crust
- 2 ½ cups chocolate wafer cookies (or oreos with the filling scraped out)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Pie
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup salted caramel sauce
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans (topping)
- ¼ cup chocolate chips (topping)
Instructions
Make the Salted Caramel Sauce
- In a medium saucepan, melt the sugar over medium heat, using a metal whisk to the stir the sugar. It will turn into clumps of sugar at first, but keep stirring until sugar is completely melted, about 5 minutes. After sugar is melted, let it sit for about 1 minute, until it turns an amber color. Remove from heat.
- Add in half of the butter and stir until it's completely melted (it will bubble up quite a bit). Add in remaining butter and stir until thoroughly combined. Pour in half of the heavy cream and stir (this will also bubble up). Add in remaining heavy cream and stir until completely combined.
- Add in salt and vanilla extract and combine well. *If your caramel hardens up, gently re-heat over low heat until it's soft enough to incorporate vanilla. Pour caramel sauce into a glass container and allow it to cool completely before using. Once cooled, it can be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Make the Oreo Crust
- Place cookies, butter, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor* and blend for several minutes, until you've achieved a mixture of fine crumbs. Pour into a 9" pie pan and press mixture on bottom and up the sides of pan. Chill until ready to fill (at least 30 minutes). *Alternatively, you can crush cookies in a large plastic bag using a rolling pan. Add crumbs to a mixing bowl and combine with butter, sugar, and salt.
Make the Pie
- In a medium-sized bowl, use an electric hand-mixer to beat the cream cheese for roughly 2 minutes. Next, add the powdered sugar and ½ cup of the salted caramel sauce. Mix on low just until combined, then increase the speed to high and mix until smooth.
- Into the bowl of a stand mixer, pour heavy cream and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high until medium peaks form. Add the whipped cream to your caramel cream cheese mixture and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the whipped cream until it's fully combined and there are no streaks left (this will take a few minutes).
- Spread pie filling over cookie crust and cover the pie with tented foil. Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight.
- When ready to serve, drizzle remaining caramel sauce over pie and sprinkle with chopped pecans and chocolate chips.
Notes
- Storage: Store (covered) pie in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- How to freeze: Wrap individual slices of pie in foil and place in a freezer storage bag. Pie can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw, place in refrigerator overnight.
- Make ahead: This pecan turtle pie can be assembled and stored in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. Right before serving, drizzle with remaining caramel sauce, and top with pecans and chocolate chips.
- Use softened cream cheese. This will prevent a lumpy cheesecake filling.
- Chill pie. Make sure that you chill your assembled pie for at least 6 hours to help it set up.
- Refrigerate pie crust for at least 30 minutes before adding filling.
- Thick caramel sauce. If you use store-bought caramel sauce, make sure that it's thick caramel sauce and not thin caramel syrup.
- Cool sauce completely. If you do make homemade caramel sauce, be sure to cool it completely before using. To cool it faster, place it in the freezer for 20 minutes, giving it a good stir every 5 minutes.
- Fold gently. When incorporating whipped cream into pie filling, make sure that you gently fold it in using a rubber spatula. This will prevent the whipped cream from deflating, keeping it light and airy.
Beth
This looks (and sounds) so awesome!! Adding this to my pie list for Thanksgiving!
MaryAnne
Thanks so much, Beth! I hope you love it! 😊