The story behind our adorable confection dubbed “Sleeping Bear” is one of seeming happenstance. When I began planning to launch the confectionery side of Love’s, a depth of research was required to help inform my decision making on which equipment to purchase, which products we would offer, how we would produce them, which tools would be needed to help in that process, etc. After taking a couple confectionery courses in Chicago, I worked with a local CNC shop to cut some HDPE plastic frames to cast ganache into (ganache is a water-based liquid made firmer with the addition of chocolate). These framed ganache slabs are cut into squares, enrobed in chocolate, and become “bon bons”. Since the interior of these frames was going to be pure waste, I decided to have some shapes cut from them in case we could somehow use them in the future. Many of us Michiganders love the shape of the lower peninsula of Michigan (I confess to love the shape of the UP too) so it was a natural fit to have some of this scrap cut out with the shape of Michigan to use with chocolate. I had no plans for these salvaged scraps otherwise.
Two months after opening the confections side of Love’s I was thinking about rolling out a “turtle” style confection – pecans, caramel, chocolate. The name “turtle” is trademarked, so we had to devise another name. Another name out there is “bear claw” – not the pastry version, but a confectionery version. Commonly this is done by making a puddle of caramel on a bed of pecans, then dipping or enrobing in chocolate. This connected the dots of a name and a shape for me. I thought to put the caramel and pecans in the deep stencil, and top it with chocolate using the thin stencil. One trial of this combo and approach and the Sleeping Bear was born, along with its counterpart, the Black Bear (in the shape of the UP). A tribute to our famed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The pecan dust representing the beaches along the west coast of Michigan. The Black Bear a tribute to the wildlife in the upper peninsula.
Here’s the video of that November 2018 day that I texted to my wife showing proof of concept.
