Bakery Prepares for Valentine's Day

Businesses across town are preparing for a weekend of love heading to Valentine's Day on Monday.

The Dorazio Sisters bakery and confectionary shop at 365 South Main St. is no exception, with heart-shaped cheesecakes and chocolate covered strawberries among its specialities this time of year.

“We have ceramic planters containing a pound-and-a-half of our biscotti. We also have chocolate covered nuts and raisins, red glazed heart-shaped cheesecakes and cookies for Valentine’s Day giving,” JoJo Dorazio, who tends the shop, said. 

Dorazio, who likes to create jewelry in her spare time, is also selling in the shop necklaces with heart-shaped pendants for Valentine’s giving.

Building on the success of the past holiday season and a growing customer base, the shop run by Dorazio and her sister, AnnMarie Dorazio, has expanded its offerings beyond holiday baked goods and cheesecakes to dinner entrees and birthday cakes. It opened last fall.

AnnMarie, who bakes for the shop in the Waterview catering facility kitchen in Monroe, said customers can call the shop a couple of days in advance and order dinner trays for parties and family gatherings with enough food for ten to 12 people at a cost of $40. Dinner offerings include eggplant parmesan, chicken Marsala, baked ziti, sausage and peppers, lasagna, spaghetti and clams and penne pasta with vodka sauce.

She said she has also expanded her offering of stuffed bread, which sold very well for Super Bowl parties last weekend. Sweet sausage, hot sausage with peppers, eggplant, pepperoni, spinach or broccoli with mozzarella are some of the stuffing choices available.

AnnMarie has also been baking a couple of new types of cheesecake for the shop - one made with chocolate Oreo cookies and another made in the Sicilian style, according to her mother’s recipe, with ricotta cheese and wheat berries.

She is especially proud of her almond and anisette biscotti, which she bakes just once, not twice, to leave them crunchy but chewy. If they were baked twice, as many people might in a traditional-style, the biscotti would be crisp and hard, she said.

Among their many customers, the sisters have been surprised to meet a number of people of Italian heritage who, like themselves, moved to this area from the Bronx or elsewhere in New York City. These customers have been delighted to find in the shop the pastries they used to enjoy in New York, the sisters said.

“While the Italian pastries made in factories in the city may be beautiful, the ones my sister makes have much more flavor,” JoJo said.

The Dorazio Sisters Shop is in a white building with blue trim at 365 South Main St., on the corner of Swamp Road, a short distance from the Monroe town line. For orders, contact the sisters by phone, 203-270-3671, or via internet, doraziosisters@gmail.com.

The shop is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is closed Monday.