Turtle Alley

91A Washington St., Gloucester, MA - (978) 281-4000

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Posted By Michael Stern on March 4, 2010 11:05 AM

Step into Turtle Alley and behold a fleet of candy turtles without peer. Big, knobby critters are made of dark, white, and milk chocolate; they are handmade, and each as unique as a snowflake, bristling with nuts that poke out from the caramel like multiple flippers from underneath the chocolate shell.

Proprietor Hallie Baker makes her turtles with pecans, almonds, peanuts, and macadamias. These are extraordinarily good-looking turtles, unlike mass-produced ones because their nuts are not totally plastered with chocolate. Instead, the nuts are implanted in the caramel underneath the chocolate so that they stick out the side. Some really do look anatomically correct; others look like cartoon turtles with a dozen flippers paddling all around the shell.

Hallie says that white chocolate turtles are the richest, and she may be right; but the turtles we like best are the traditional pecan-footed ones, coated with deep, dark chocolate. Perhaps the most amazing one is the almond chipotle turtle in which the pepper's smoky bite surges through the caramel filling and around the nuts like edible adrenalin, all its excitement robed in a silky sweet chocolate coat that assures on-fire taste buds that all is well.

Turtles are just some of many things available in this joyous candy land. The shelves are lined with brittles and clusters and butter crunches, chocolate-coated candied fruits, nonpareils, and simple hunks of uncomplicated chocolate. The confectionery is fun to visit because Hallie Baker’s pleasure at running it is contagious – she is the proverbial kid in a candy store, but in this case grown up and doing exactly what she loves to do.

Turtles and chocolate samplers are available by mail order.

Overall Rating

Turtles

Fudge

Peanut Brittle

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