Chocolate Turtles with Pecans, Cherries, and Caramel
A magical new spring confection from the Candy Manufactory
In her wonderful new book, Bread of Angels, rock icon Patti Smith shares one of her most meaningful childhood memories.
Once, when I was about five or six years old, I was on the way to school and took a shortcut through the forest. There was a little pond. I sat there for a moment, and a huge snapping turtle crawled out of the water. He was, to me, giant—the king of tortoises.
We looked at each other for a long time and just communed. It wasn’t unnatural to me because I communed with my siblings that way, without words. As a child, it seemed totally natural to commune with an animal, a dog, a massive snapping turtle, your brother and sister, without words.
But I must have been there a long time in tortoise consciousness because when I finally got to school, everyone was in an uproar.
I, of course, can’t say how large Patti Smith’s tortoise friend actually was. I can say, however, that if you swing by Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory on Plaza Drive, we have some beautiful little dried-cherry chocolate turtles on hand—small in size, but massive in flavor. And we’re all in a bit of an uproar here about how delicious they are!
Some of you may be very familiar with chocolate turtles; perhaps you’ve been eating them most of your life. Others may be curious, even confused! Well, here’s the dope: Chocolate turtles are not new. They date back to the World War I era, when they were formally rolled out by a confectioner in my hometown of Chicago in 1918. Candy companies have been making versions of them ever since—and this is ours.
Pastry chef and food writer Elizabeth LaBau confirms what I usually say: “Because few ingredients are needed, each is very important to the final flavor, so use good-quality pecans and chocolate. Homemade caramel is always best.”
No surprise, then, that it’s the Candy Manufactory’s much-loved, handmade Muscovado brown sugar caramel that contributes so much to the complexity of the turtle’s flavor. Then dried Michigan cherries are added, pecans are mixed in, and it’s all dipped in delicious dark chocolate. As you eat and enjoy, let your mind wander a bit. Maybe muse on Patti Smith if you like. See where your magic turtle takes you.
At the end of Smith’s story, after her parents have realized she wasn’t lost, her mother asks her where she was. Her response is one I probably gave my parents a hundred times as a kid, too: “Nowhere.”
Smith’s father scores some big points in my leadership book, though, when he follows up with a brilliant tactic I would be wise to keep in mind. He doesn’t argue; he simply reframes the question, asking, “Can you show me your nowhere?” Smith does just that, and they sit there together, father and young daughter, communing and connecting.
My “nowhere” for the next few weeks will be standing within a few feet of the candy case at the Manufactory, directly communing with these beguiling little dark chocolate turtles.
