By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Imagine being surrounded by this all day — candy coated apples and pounds of fudge in all sorts of different flavors.
“It is a dream job. It really is. It can’t be better than making candies at the Jersey Shore,” said Jessica Alongi.
As beachgoers stroll the boardwalk, the Jenkinson’s Sweet Shop staffers dip apples and pretzels and lots of other treats that taste oh-so-good lathered with chocolate or caramel.
“When you walk into the store, the first thing that hits you is all the smells. The chocolate, the sugar, the caramel, the popcorn. It’s really dreamy so instantly when you get in here you’re happy! The sugar fumes keeps us happy,” said Ana Galvano.
Summer’s their busiest time. The year-round shop’s open for more than 15 hours a day, seven days a week during the season. Fudge making starts with a hot kettle and two pounds of butter.
“Which is a lot of butter when you think about it but it gets divided out among all the pounds of fudge that we make,” Alongi said. “So we have butter, we have water, we have a little special mix we put in — powdered mix — with secret ingredients. That mixes for about 7 minutes. Then we add a chocolate mix to it as well, and that mixes for another 10 minutes.”
Then a teaspoon or two of vanilla flavoring is added. Then it’s poured out of the kettle onto a tray. It’s sent down to the temperature controlled chocolate room where it’s stored. For those craving something a little saltier, Chocolatier Galvano makes a red candy popcorn. The main ingredients? Butter, sugar, water and a powdered mix. It’s all poured into the kettle. It cooks until it reaches about 285 degrees.
“To where the sugar reaches caramel and we add our color and then we add our popcorn and spin it in the kettle with the motor to color coat it. And we spray it with a solution called free and easy which helps separate the corn and it keep it from clumping,” Galvano said.
The new colorful popcorn is poured into a big tray and eventually bagged.
Galvano makes about 80 pecan turtle rods a week during the summer months. Its starts with a pretzel stick that’s dipped in caramel. Is there a method here to get the perfect coat? “Spin it against the spatula and roll it in the pecans,” Galvano said.
Once it’s cooled it’s dipped in chocolate. The whole process from start to finish typically takes about an hour and a half. This what the finished product looks like. Galvano insists these treats are an easy sell.
“At the end of eating all the boardwalk food you need to have something sweet,” said Joe Andolino of East Hanover.
“They just taste better when they’re from the shore,” said Rosalie Giorno of Kendall Park.
Looks like there’s plenty to taste.