Sometime last year I became obsessed on Pinterest with an American candy called a turtle.  I went from never having heard of them in my life to seeing them all over the internet.  And holy moly did they sound good!  For those of you, like me, who have spent our lives in ignorance of this delight, just listen to this:

• A chocolate base.
• Toppped with pecan nuts
• Topped with caramel
• Topped with more chocolate

There is no way on God’s green earth that they could be bad.  Supposably.  As Joey Tribbiani would say.  And depending on your definition, they were really good.  Well, they tasted delicious.

Before we get into them, just a word of explanation.  The recipe I used called them turtledoves because they used Dove Chocolate.  We used to have Dove Chocolate here – apparently not anymore.  I wonder when that happened?

My turtledoves started really well.

It all started to fall apart with the caramel.  I could not get it to sit on the pecans the way I wanted it too.  I wanted it to be a perfect dome, surrounding my pecans but leaving a little bit of chocolate on the base visible.  Not ONE of them looked like that.

And the more I tried to meddle with it, the worse it got.  In the end, I thought. “Nevermind.  It will all be covered with the rest of the chocolate.  It will be fine”.

Not so.  I was already on a slippery slope and the only way was down.  The final chocolate layer was a disaster!  I could not get it smooth, it was a hot day and the second I touched it, it would either melt or crack.

Before I show you the wreck of the Hersperus that was my effort, let me show how these babies should look  (The Spruce Eats)

And, oh Lord, here are mine….

I know.  I’m sorry.  Two fails in a row.  Although these tasted delish, my turtles may not have been teenage or ninjas but they were mutant. Technically they weren’t even turtledoves because I could not find Dove chocolate.

They did taste good.  Really good.  Even the fussiest eater in the world was a fan.

But you know food blogging can be very much style over substance so that sometimes I think it doesn’t matter how things taste as long as they look good.  In retrospect, I should have not tried to cover them entirely but just done a little splodge of caramel and one of chocolate over the top.  Next time….

But I wanted to have something that was a success, of only to soothe my wounded self-esteem.  Two fails in a row is no way to write a food blog.  So I needed a turtledove.  Fast.  Guaranteed success.

Hmmmm….

• Chocolate
• Caramel
• Nuts

How about something like this?

• Baileys
• Frangelico
• Butterscotch Schnapps

Now that’s my kind of Turtledove!

And it brought F.Scott out of the funk caused by the Bobby Dazzler.

Normality has resumed in Chez Retro Food.  Well, as close as we can get ’round here anyway!

Turtledove

Print Recipe

A cocktail shooter that mirrors the flavours of the classic American turtle candy – chocolate, caramel and nuts

• Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 30ml Butterscotch Schnapps
• 30ml Frangelico
• 30ml Bailey’s Irish Cream

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Instructions

1. Pour the Butterscotch Schnapps and the Frangelico into a shooter glass.
2. Measure out the Bailey’s and pour very slowly over the back of a spoon into the glass.
3. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful week!

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