When October rolls around, life just gets sweeter every day for candy maker Mike Tessone.

The Joliet resident has perfected the art of the caramel apple and fills orders for area pumpkin farms. “I go through about 2,000 apples a week,” he said after taking a phone call for an “emergency order” for 200 caramel apples for a local pumpkin farm that had run out of the tasty treats.

He makes gourmet versions of caramel apples coated in chocolate and candy to sell at Candy and Corn (516 W. Mondamin St., Minooka; 815-255-2464; Facebook: Candy and Corn.com), the store he owns with his wife Christina Newcomb, but the big sellers at the farms are simple caramel apples, either plain or rolled in peanuts.

Tessone has found that making confections to sell at area festivals and farms often brings in more revenue than his retail store. “A standalone shop can't survive. Having the outside sales really keeps us open,” he said.

Tessone, 43, has a family heritage in the food business. Both his father and his grandfather owned restaurants. He followed in his family footsteps and had opened a restaurant specializing in pizza in Crest Hill. Then one day he met Christina Newcomb, who had a candy store that hosted children's birthday parties. She was looking for a supplier for pizza for the parties and made a connection with Tessone.

One pizza led to another and before long, Tessone and Newcomb became partners in marriage as well as business. They opened a candy store in 2005 in Crest Hill and moved to the Minooka location about one year ago.

When Tessone first started making candy, he figured it was going to be easy. “I remember that someone came in asking for chocolate-covered strawberries and I was thinking, how hard can that be? Melt some chocolate and dip in the strawberries. That was before I knew anything about tempering chocolate and everything else. I failed miserably,” he said, laughing at the memory.

Tessone also thought he could master making caramel if he just followed the recipe. After nine frustrating attempts trying to make caramel, Tessone decided it was time to take some classes.

“You really need to see how it is done to understand how it works,” Tessone said. When he makes caramel apples now, he usually starts four large pots at once. Each batch takes about seven hours of attention before it is time to dip in the apples. He can dip about 125 apples in each batch. Since there is no way to speed up the process, he said, “Sometimes I don't sleep for two or three days just trying to keep up.”

When it comes to making caramel apples, Tessone warned that making good caramel is not easy. He has found that candy apples, which are apples dipped in a hard candy coating, are a little easier for beginners. “The most important thing if you are making any kind of candy is having a good thermometer,” he said. He uses an instant-read, battery-powered, probe-style thermometer, which can be set to give out a warning alarm when the desired temperature is reached. “Candy will not turn out if it doesn't reach the right temperature,” he said.

Apples for dipping should be fresh, he said. “My personal choice are Granny Smith apples, because they are tart, which goes well with the sweet coating. But some people like red delicious.”

When inserting the sticks for dipping, Tessone has found that it works best to put the stick through the blossom end for red delicious apples and through the stem end for Granny Smith apples. “The red apples are narrower at the bottom and will tip if you put the stick at the stem end,” he said.

Another candy-making tip is to keep the sides of the pot scraped clean while cooking so that sugar crystals don't form. “The candy for candy apples is extremely hot, so keep the children away while you are dipping. Protective gloves like the Ove Glove are great for protecting your hands from the heat,” Tessone said.

Tessone said that another fairly simple candy that people may have success with at home is peanut brittle.

“You can really have fun with brittle by putting different things in it and adding flavors,” he said. Most dried fruits and nuts can be added from coconut to pecans. “You can also dip the finished brittle in chocolate for even more flavor,” he said.

Tessone shares a recipe for candy apples and a fall brittle for others to try at home.

Judy Buchenot is a freelance writer.