Confectionately Yours Offers Tips for Valentine's Day Chocolate Bliss

For many people, any Valentine's Day gift that doesn't include chocolate is no gift at all. So to avoid a hastily purchased last minute box of chocolates at a convenience store, 

South Brunswick's local experts on all things chocolate have one piece of advice: it's all about the quality.

With nearly four decades of experience making chocolate,  on Route 27 knows quite a bit about turning Valentine's Day into a success story.

"Valentine's Day is one of the most fun holidays we have here," said co-owner Mary Gondek. "People line up out the door because they don't know where else to turn."

still has an endless variety of sweets to satisfy every chocolate lover's basic Valentine's Day needs, for those people feeling more adventurous and looking to make their own concoctions, the Gondek family offers some suggestions.

If you're looking for an intimate night at home creating your own chocolate treats like dipped fruit, the Gondeks said it's all in the quality and properly tempering the chocolate. Tempering is a method of heating and cooling chocolate to use it for coating and dipping.

"The key to making fine chocolate is in the tempering, because that allows you to put a nice thick and even coat on the berry you're dipping," said co-owner Jessica Gondek. "We use good chocolate to start with, and then dip and swirl it to give it that finishing touch. You just dip it, let it set and then you're ready to go."

As most people, presumably, don't have a chocolate melter in their homes, there is still the option of buying a bag of confectioner's chocolate for something different than just buying chocolate treats at the store.

"It's very hard to work with the chocolate we use because it has to be tempered properly to make it come out right, but we do have little chips of confectioner's chocolate for people to take home and make their own," Jessica said. 

If you're planning on making chocolate-dipped fruit with the confectioner's chocolate, you need to make sure the fruit is completely dry when you start.

"You put the chocolate in the microwave and slowly start melting the chips," Jessica said. "You want to make sure you get a nice, even coat on whatever you're dipping, like fruit or pretzels. Then you just put it on parchment paper and put it in the refrigerator to let it cool. During the holidays we get a lot of people who come in to get the confectioner's chocolate so they can make it themselves. It's not the same quality, but it's nice for people looking to try something different."

As Valentine's Day is obviously a major event for any business known for their sweets, Confectionately Yours has a well-established reputation in the area for their chocolate wizardry.

"With Valentine's Day coming up, our big thing is our chocolate covered strawberries. We go through about 75 flats of strawberries over the few days before Valentine's Day," Jessica said. "People come back here every year from far away to make sure they get our strawberries. We have a UPS driver who used to deliver to us, and he's been retired for about 15 years now. But he always comes in once a year right before Valentine’s Day for the chocolate covered strawberries."

The Gondeks spend about three consecutive days dipping the strawberries to make sure they're ready for the Valentine's Day rush.

"My son usually comes home to help us dip the strawberries," Mary said. "He was dipping strawberries for three days straight, so when he goes home after it's over he sure is glad to get away."

However, if you're looking to make your chocolate-covered strawberries, the Gondeks said to make sure it's not only the quality of the chocolate you focus on.

"We only use the best strawberries and if it's not good then we send them back," Jessica said. "We sent an entire truckload of berries back one time because they were no good. Then we scrambled around for the next few days, because where do you find 75 flats of strawberries right before Valentine’s Day? But we did manage to find them because we go all around until we find what's right."

So for those looking to make their own chocolate treats on Valentine’s Day, make sure quality is first and foremost among your considerations. Or for those looking for a quicker and easier route to Valentine’s Day chocolate bliss, there are still myriad options in the Confectionately Yours sweets section.

"The secret to our chocolate is that we make it here," Mary said. "At our old location, people used to be able to watch me hand dip the chocolate. People would stand in the door and watch me dip it. I think we heard about 100 times a day people say you're just like Lucy."

Confectionately Yours is located at 3391 on the Franklin Park side of Route 27. Click here to visit the web site.