Richly engineered, Pizzelles makes shopping a scrumptious experience

HUNTSVILLE – “I’ve heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true,” said Grandpa Joe in the story, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“Willy Wonka obsessed” is what Michelle Novosel said inspired her and her sister, Caitlin Lyon, to become Huntsville’s first, and currently only, chocolatiers.

“I was not sure whether operating a chocolate factory was a real thing, but if it was, I wanted my own,” said Novosel about starting Pizzelles Confections at Lowe Mill. “I gained a lot of culinary experience working in food service, managing cafes and bakeries, and being the front-face of customer service. That was when I realized it was a completely achievable goal.”

Novosel completed culinary school to lock down the basic tenets of food preparation. But knowing chocolate was what she really wanted to create, Novosel went on to gain a master’s level specialization in chocolate from the Ecole Chocolat Professional School of Chocolate Arts.

While attending Ecole Chocolat, she discussed the idea with her instructor about opening a fine chocolate shop in Huntsville. The sisters had been involved in the arts and culture community here for years, even before Lowe Mill opened. There was not another candy maker in Huntsville at the time and the timing seemed right.

Still, her instructor warned her that a high-end chocolatier had little chance of making it in Huntsville.

“It has been a long road,” Novosel said. “Caitlin and I talked about Pizzelle’s for seven years before we opened. It was originally going to be a small dessert café that specialized in chocolate.”

Now in their 10th year, Pizzelles current location at the south end of Lowe Mill across from the dock, was much smaller when they opened a decade ago.

In addition to dozens of varieties in fine chocolate candies, the expanded shop has a homemade ice cream counter, a full hot and cold coffee and chocolate bar and an open kitchen. Here, customers can ask questions and watch the goodies being made, including macrons, layered mini-cakes, chocolate bombs, and elaborately decorated chocolate concoctions.

While both attended chocolate school, Lyon is the general manager and Novosel runs the chocolate side.

After Pizzelles took off, her instructor was so impressed, he asked Novosel to teach a hands-on master’s class for Ecole Chocolat twice a month. The students are people like herself – interested in building a business as a chocolatier.

She also trains her own staff inhouse and when she sees talent and a desire to take the job to another level, Pizzelles sends them through chocolate school. One of their lead chocolate decorators has a major in art; she paints chocolates using cocoa butter and chocolate fat dyed with food coloring to give the candies great panache.

Not surprising for Huntsville, it turns out that making chocolates is a highly technical process requiring the same finesse as mixing rocket fuel or figuring the coordinates for jettisoning around the dark side of the moon.

For instance, one of the most glaring aspects of the candies on display is their high gloss and perfection. Whether molded into the shapes of hearts, skulls for Halloween or holiday ornaments, each candy is flawless.

That is because of a tempering process that begins with melting the chocolate slowly over low heat, then raising and lowering the temperature until the correct crystal form in the chocolate stabilizes. The result is a shiny, textured chocolate that has a snap to it when you break it.

Time is as important as temperature in the tempering process. Well-tempered chocolate is brittle, making it perfect for making candy shells, decorations, and panaches of all sorts. It is also more heat tolerant and less susceptible to humidity. But above all, tempered chocolate has a “luscious melting texture” and a highly shiny veneer.

“You can hold a tempered bar of chocolate in one hand and an untempered bar of chocolate in the other and the untempered chocolate will melt much faster,” Novosel said.

She explains the process.

“Pizzelles takes chocolate and manipulates it to make things out of it,” she said. “That makes us chocolatiers; however, we buy our chocolate from a chocolate maker in Felchlin, Switzerland.”

Chocolate, she said, is like wine or coffee. It can only grow within a narrow band of 5 degrees above and 5 degrees below the equator. In the U.S., only Hawaii can grow chocolate. But Felchlin Swiss chocolate has its own distinct taste, similar to how Napa Valley wines taste different from wine made in Italy or France.

“In the chocolate business,” Novosel said. “Many chocolate makers will mix the chocolate beans from different regions to come up with their own recipe; but all of our chocolate comes from the Felchlin region plantations. It is not mixed and therefore has its own distinct taste that is different from other chocolate makers.

“It is a really good chocolate with many different varieties.”

Something else people may not know about chocolate is that it contains no water content and therefore chocolate cannot grow bacteria, causing it to go bad.

“You can eat chocolate 10 years from now and, while it may get chalky with age, only sunlight, heat and humidity can cause it to deteriorate,” she said.

Furthermore, chocolate should be stored at a temperature of 64 to 68 degrees to properly maintain its rigidity or succumb to condensation.

For Pizzelles, the holiday season began in July but, for the consumer, the busiest season for chocolates is from Halloween to Mother’s Day.

Pizzelles boxed candies are good for employee and corporate Christmas gifts. The company also makes “tribute chocolates.” When the artist known as Prince died, Pizzelles created a Raspberry Beret candy. When Muhammad Ali passed, they created a piece called Sting Like a Bee.

You never know what you might find in a Pizzelle chocolate be it a liqueur, shortbread, nuts or even corn.

For holiday gifts, Pizzelles ships its candy gifts across town or out of state and there is still time to order.

Pizzelles is open Tuesday-Thursday from 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. Though Lowe Mill is closed Tuesdays, Pizzelles offers specials every Tuesday.