Pizzelle’s Confections is an Alabama Maker mixing chocolate with creativity
Sisters Michelle Novosel, left, and Caitlin Lyon hold some of their creations in the dessert café. (Karim Shamsi-Basha / Alabama NewsCenter)
Pizzelle’s Confections, Huntsville
The Makers: Michelle Novosel and Caitlin Lyon
Sisters Michelle Novosel and Caitlin Lyon dreamed big but decided to start small.
The owners of Pizzelle’s Confections in Huntsville have mastered making small-batch, hand-painted, and handmade chocolates and cakes.
“We planned for about nine years to open up a small chocolate shop or a restaurant or a dessert café,” Lyon said. “We decided to start small and just focus on doing chocolate well and see where that took us.”
The aroma at Pizzelle’s Confections hits you the second you walk in the door. Then your eyes go immediately to the little chocolates in the display case. They are small pieces of art – a composition fully realized when you taste one of the creations.
“We opened the chocolate shop here at Lowe Mill in March of 2013,” Lyons said. “Last year we expanded into the space next door and opened up our dessert café. Chocolate is one of the important food groups, isn’t it?”
Pizelle’s Confections’ website carries the tagline “Where fine chocolate meets pure imagination,” and that is really the sisters’ mantra.
Pizzelle’s Confections is an Alabama Maker crafting creative candies from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
“Chocolate is such a beautiful medium to work with,” Novosel said. “You can do many things with it, the way you can paint the pieces, the fillings and flavors you can use, all the show pieces you can make. We combine art with chocolate.”
The chocolate comes from fair-trade, single-origin company El Rey in Venezuela and gives the confections an earthy taste that is not too sweet.
The sisters want the chocolates to be something adults can enjoy, and they gauge the flavors with their own mature palates.
“Our family, they were not very good cooks,” Novosel said. “But we took many flavors from our childhood and adapted them over time.”
Pizelle’s creations include Steel Magnolia, which has a layer of creamy milk chocolate ganache with vanilla bean and a layer of chicory coffee-infused dark chocolate, dipped in dark chocolate.
Date Night is milk chocolate ganache infused with Grand Marnier, orange zest and tamarind, in dark chocolate, topped with candied orange peel.
You can also try treats with fun names like Happy Festivus, Truffle of the Dead, Young Frankenstein, Tequila Mockingbird and I Do Declare.
“If anyone told us when we were younger that we’d be working together, we would have laughed at them,” Novosel said. “We work out really well. I’m in the kitchen and Caitlin takes care of the business end of things.”
The growing trend of buying local has been key to the Pizzelle’s Confections sisters continuing their legacy in the sweets business.
“People come to us because Huntsville is very committed to buying local,” Lyon said. “They like to buy a local product made by someone in their community. You’re not going to get this flavor of chocolate from a box you buy at the drugstore. Everything is made small batch with real ingredients and no preservatives.”
Sometimes the biggest rewards come from starting small.
The Product: Hand-made chocolates and cakes.
Take Home: Box of 12 chocolate pieces, $24.48
Pizzelle’s Confections
2211 Seminole Drive, Railroad Room #4
Huntsville, AL 35805
256-513-9745
