Sweet and shticky. That pretty much sums up an afternoon with the Puff Girls, two Ken-Ton natives with serious day jobs who sweeten their off hours in a little business making marshmallows from scratch — and who stir in a little shtick for the joy of it.
Perhaps it’s the nature of people who love marshmallows, but making them, eating them and even just talking about them makes a certain segment of the population giggly. Perhaps it’s because most enthusiasts have childhood memories of parties and campfires made all the more delicious by treats of hyper-sweet, gooey marshmallows.
“We both work hard. It’s nice to have some fluff on the side,” said Patty Olender, who, in her day job, is the communications director for the United Way of Erie County. Her partner is longtime friend Robyn Starr, a Kenmore native who teaches middle school in Alden.
Taste-testing the product in Olender’s Town of Tonawanda home was an elementary lesson in the vast difference between a factory-made marshmallow and a marshmallow made by hand.
The handmade mallow is far gooier with a flavor, they say, that is more pure.
The Puff Girls create marshmallows in a variety of flavors from vanilla, which they use in their version of S’mores, to cappuccino, cinnamon and passion fruit. Sometimes they add graham crackers, and sometimes it’s just a square of marshmallow, but all the confections are “enrobed” in chocolate from Platter’s in North Tonawanda.
The ladies, who admit to having made a “boatload of marshmallows,” still savor the treat each time they take a bite.
“I have one almost every day,” said Olender with a satisfied smile.
“They’re good for you,” she added. “They don’t have any fat in them, and they’re covered in dark chocolate, which is good for the heart.”
The two recalled how the business idea came up one day when they were bored and looking for something creative to fill their time. They saw some handmade marshmallows in a gourmet cooking catalog and decided to create some.
As they began to experiment, there were days when the little house was filled with trays of marshmallows. They were encouraged to go forward by friends and family who loved the results of their experiments.
Once they had a recipe they liked, they took their creations to Platter’s for chocolate coating.
Olender and Starr were working on a huge enrobing machine, carefully decorating and boxing chocolate-covered marshmallows as the candies moved along a conveyer belt. When the line started going faster, they recounted a recreation of a famous episode of “I Love Lucy” where Lucy and her friend Ethel stuffed candies in their mouths and pockets to keep up with the fast pace of chocolates moving by.
“I’m decorating, and then they started going faster, and I’m throwing decorations on the marshmallows,” Starr recounted, laughing.
Niagara Living
Related Photos
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Patty Olender, left, and Robyn Starr hold up a plate of the gourmet marshmallows. DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPH
May 4, 2008
VIDEO: Watch the Puff Girls make marshmallow magic!
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