Little Silver Baker Brings Holiday Treats All Year Long

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By Michele J. Kuhn
LITTLE SILVER – Christmas cookies. The very mention conjures images of a few left with milk for Santa, a variety festively arranged on plates, swapping favorites with friends and neighbors and gift tins filled with them for those we love.

It’s a family affair at the Ye Olde Pie Shoppe in Little Silver. Shop owners Tom and Eileen Caruso with their son Nick are busy making holiday treats this time of year.
It’s a family affair at the Ye Olde Pie Shoppe in Little Silver. Shop owners Tom and Eileen Caruso with their son Nick are busy making holiday treats this time of year.

 
“Part of the whole tradition of celebrating Christmas is having Christmas cookies,” said Eileen Caruso, owner/baker at Ye Olde Pie Shoppe at 74 Oceanport Ave. “Growing up myself, my mother always baked a variety of cookies at Christmas time. So, we always looked forward to having all her favorite recipes.
“It was always a part of my life growing up,” she said. “I think a lot of people grew up that way and have made it a part of their tradition.”
During the holiday season, Caruso’s shop sells about 18 different types of cookies, several of them made from her mother’s special recipes. She estimates that during the holiday season, Ye Olde Pie Shoppe bakes more than 1,000 pounds of cookies, including her favorite Chocolate Ecstasy cookie, a confection that is intensely chocolate and studded with mini-chocolate chips. “It’s like chocolate heaven,” she said. “It’s my chocolate fix. I can have one or two and then be done.”
Eileen Caruso uses an angel cookie cutter and then decorates them with  colored sugar.
Eileen Caruso uses an angel cookie cutter and then decorates them with
colored sugar.

 
Caruso, a Shrewsbury native, also makes a gluten-free version of the cookie that is even more intensely chocolate because she uses a bittersweet chip.
Though she makes a lemon-cheese cookie with a lemon glaze all year round – the recipe is another one of her mom’s – they also are big sellers at the holiday time.
Among those Caruso’s Ye Olde Pie Shoppe also bakes are: butter cookies that can be dipped in chocolate, filled with jam or drizzled with icing; gingerbread boys and girls; Scottish shortbread; a vanilla cream filled with buttercream; walnut balls that are dusted with powered sugar; peanut butter; oatmeal raisin; chocolate chip; “chunky monkey” – developed by one of Caruso’s sons – that is a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts and marshmallow; white chocolate chip; various types of rugelach; and cream cheese-based cookies filled with apricot, strawberry or raspberry jam.
Ye Olde Pie Shoppe also creates completed ginger­bread houses and sells kits for families to make on together.
Caruso, who learned to bake alongside her mother, can’t remember when she didn’t love baking.
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“Growing up, my mother was a pretty good baker,” she said. “I guess when I was about 12, I was in the Girl Scouts and always wanted to enter their baking contests. So one year I won baking a cake and I think from that point on, I was inspired to become a baker.”
She baked at home a lot and for her first job, she was employed by the Dessert Cart in Shrewsbury. Then she went off to Johnson & Wales College in Rhode Island for culinary school. It was there she found her passion really was in baking and making sweet creations.
In 1984, she got the opportunity to purchase Ye Olde Pie Shoppe from the original owners, two sisters who had set up shop in a 400-square-foot space inside of Andy’s Market in Middletown.
“They had started to bake together as a hobby. But after being in business for about 15 years, the holidays were becoming overwhelming to them and they were ready to pass it on. That’s when I bought it,” said Caruso, who was just 22 years old at the time.
She had a family friend as a silent financial partner for her first year of operation. The second year, her then-boyfriend, Tom Caruso, proposed both marriage and becoming the bakery partnership. They have been baking together ever since.
In 1986, she moved the business to its present space and 10 years ago expanded to include tables where customers can sip coffee, cappuccino and hot chocolate while eating freshly baked treats.
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Year-round the bakery creates a full dessert line plus custom cakes for any occasion, as well as pies, quiches, cookies and a wide range of pastries.
“I find it very fulfilling, making people happy by baking,” she said. “It’s always a nice way to end the event or the day. Everyone leaves happy after a really good dessert.”
Caruso offers two important tips for home bakers as they prepare to make their own holiday creations.
• Most recipes work best when ingredients, particularly butter, is at room temperature. (Some call for slightly chilled butter, but most need room temperature.)
• Make sure you measure your ingredients accurately.
But, for those who don’t have the time, talent or inclination to bake cookies, Ye Old Pie Shoppe might just be the answer.
 
 
Ye Olde Pie Shoppe, 74 Oceanport Ave., Little Silver, is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. 732-530-3337 www.yeoldepieshoppe.com