“Auntie Ellyn” Glazer, right, and Heidi Kaye, owners of Auntie Ellyn’s in Englishtown, brought some of their kosher mandel bread gift baskets to a sisterhood program at a Monroe synagogue Sept. 8.
Photo courtesy Congregation Etz Chaim-Monroe Township Jewish Center
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September 16, 2009
For “Auntie Ellyn” Glazer and her partner, Heidi Kaye, mandelbroit, or mandel bread, the traditional Jewish baked dessert, is something to be enjoyed by anyone at anytime during any holiday celebration.
It’s all kosher, under rabbinical supervision, and right now, during High Holy Day season, for example, demand is high for the apple crumb variety. But soon it will be time to begin baking candy corn mandel bread for Halloween and the Christmas rush for candy cane mandel bread is not far behind.
How do you sell a Jewish delicacy to non-Jewish customers? “We just tell them it’s Jewish biscotti,” said Ellyn Glazer. Her Auntie Ellyn’s shop in Englishtown is where she and Kaye have developed some 60 varieties of mandel bread, from cranberry apple crumb to cranberry pumpkin spice for fall to the summery varieties of key lime pie, pina colada, and lemon coconut.
Then there’s chocolate cappuccino hazelnut, dipped, and, among the biggest sellers, death by chocolate, cranberry almond dipped in white chocolate, and peanut butter and jelly. Everything is pareve and made with canola oil.
“We always do seasonal flavors,” said Kaye who said Rosh Hashana and the Yom Kippur break-fast were the kick-off to the big mandel bread season, which includes Sukkot and Thanksgiving and runs into Hanukka and, yes, Christmas. Then there’s a lull before the Purim rush.
What started out as a whim five years ago has taken the mandel bread business to unexpected heights for the two Marlboro women. They supply kosher caterers, personally deliver anywhere in the state, and will ship anywhere. There’s even a mandel bread of the month. Their wares are also being sold in a number of Bloomingdales and Wegman’s supermarkets around the state.
Glazer, who was interviewed by phone while making deliveries in central Jersey, said the basic recipe is her own. She recalled that one day, while vacationing in Boston, she went into a cafe and was disappointed to learn they didn’t have biscotti.
“I mentioned to the cafe owner I had a business back in New Jersey called Auntie Ellyn’s Mandel Bread,” she said. “He was very interested and said he’d love to sample my product. After I shipped out my first order, I received a wonderful response from the owner.”
Soon Glazer began bringing her product to local coffeehouses and restaurants and received the same response.
“It was not anything I ever sat down and said I wanted to do,” said Glazer, but “one account led to another account…and the business just started to grow.”
Her partnership with Kaye began when Kaye’s husband, Robert — who happens to be Glazer’s cousin — backed her business.
For more information or synagogue fund-raisers contact 732-786-1828 or auntieellyn@auntieellyns.com or visit auntieellyns.com.
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