Dan's Homemade Candies: Everyone Loves These Apples

JOLIET, IL — Over the lunch hour Wednesday, Dan's Homemade Candies at 1003 Plainfield Road was the place to be. There was a constant line of eight to a dozen customers waiting their turn to purchase the caramel apples that arrived the day before.

"They're coming for the apples," remarked long-time Dan's Homemade Candies Plainfield Road store manager Karen Nolan. "We always do well over the course of the season. Last year, we sold 66,000 apples and all are hand-dipped, and let me tell ya, it's a lot of work!

"When caramel apple season is here, there really is no slow time."

Nolan's first bushels of apples made it to Joliet at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, she said.

These apples came from an orchard in northern Michigan, Nolan said.

Susan Harkis, owner of the East Side Greenhouse on Henderson Avenue, delivered about 40 bushels of apples to Dan's Homemade Candies, Nolan said.

Usually, Dan's gets its first bushels of apples in late August, the store manager said.

"But the orchards in Michigan had a late frost, so we kind of had to go farther north in Michigan to get them," Nolan told Joliet Patch on Wednesday.

Dan's is very particular about its apples. There's only one type of apple that Dan's sells during the fall Halloween season.

"Everything is a Jonathan," Nolan told Joliet Patch. "Everything is different sizes."

Dan's sells its share of caramel apples, caramel apples covered with chocolate, caramel apples with peanuts, caramel apples with chocolate and pecans.

There's also the jumbo apples.

Dan's also has a store at 229 East Cass St. and a third location in Mokena.

Dan's Candies has been family owned since it was established in Joliet in 1919. The Mokena candy store sold about 17,000 apples last year, Nolan explained.

Toward the end of September, Dan's will be selling its Halloween themed apples including "a white covered apple that is decorated to look like a ghost and some orange ones that look like pumpkins," Nolan said.

Wednesday marked the first full day Dan's was offering its caramel apples for the 2020 fall campaign.

Joliet Patch wanted to know what was the top seller on Wednesday.

"Chocolate apples," Nolan responded without hesitation. "Dear God, we can't keep them in stock. It's a generational thing. We have so many of our Joliet customers who come in the store and say, 'We grew up on these apples.' It's just a tradition for a lot of Joliet when the caramel apple (season) hits."

But with so many Joliet area schools not holding regular classes this fall because of the pandemic, Nolan said she is not sure her store will exceed last fall's sales of 66,000 apples. She said that a lot of Joliet schools would sell the Dan's caramel apples as part of their school fundraisers.

In addition to the shipment of apples, Dan's is also the place to go to purchase your Halloween candies including gummies and suckers, Nolan said.

On Wednesday, Dan's Homemade Candies updated its business marquee along the busy stretch of Route 30. One word on the sign says it all: "APPLES."

Dan's on Plainfield Road is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Nolan encourages customers to place their order over the phone, although a lot of customers prefer to visit the store to look over the size of the apples displayed in the glass counter.

The Plainfield Road candy shop phone is 815-722-0712.

For Joliet residents wanting to visit the east side store, Dan's at 229 Cass St. also has the apples in stock, Nolan said The Cass Street store is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, but not on weekends.

The Dan's Homemade Candies in Mokena is located at 11400 West Lincoln Highway.