Business & Tech

A Homegrown Baking Talent (How Sweet It Is!)

A Montclair baking business that offers free delivery within 10 miles of Montclair

 

When New Jersey resident Janice Pedicino graduated from Montclair State University in 1983 with a degree in Political Science, she never envisioned that cleaning people’s homes and offices would sustain her into the future.

Janice and her sister Amy had formed a partnership and cleaned their way through school—but at that time it was just a way for two ambitious coeds to earn extra money.

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But Janice's entrepreneurial spirit has led to the creation of Janny's Cookies, a Montclair baking business that offers free delivery within 10 miles of Montclair.

"I've lived in Montclair since 1985. My cookie recipes are based on classic cookie types," she said. "I tweak each recipe until I feel it's perfect. Baking is in the hands and heart. No two bakers will yield the same result from the same recipe."

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Upon graduating from MSU, Janice decided to keep her cleaning business going and explains her rationale this way: “I took the back door into entrepreneurialism, realizing I would never be happy in the conventional workaday world. Meetings, reports, charts, and graphs are just not my thing. I enjoy working directly for my clients, knowing their needs and meeting them. To me they are more than just names and appointments and I always strive to forge longstanding relationships with them.”

A vital part of her business over the years has been this relationship with her customers. This one-on-one rapport that Janice has achieved in her business is rare, if it exists at all, in the corporate world. Janice describes it this way: “My customers not only trust me with the keys to their homes, they take me into their confidence as well. I become a virtual member of the family.”

Born the sixth of six sisters, Janice entered the world with both the cleaning gene and the cuisine gene. She takes pride in being obsessively fastidious in both arts. Janice fondly remembers baking with her mother from the age of eight and soon after was cooking family dinners. As a teenager, she helped prepare holiday meals from trusted family recipes. A true individual, Janice culled from those experiences, then experimented and developed her own recipes, tailored to represent her vegetarian diet and her unique taste and style.   

In 1996, the Montclair Book Center Café—no longer in existence—agreed to feature some of her baked goods. Bringing in her trademark chocolate chip cookies and an apple cake, she checked back a half hour later and not a crumb remained. Pleasantly surprised, Janice knew then that she was on to something.

And so Janny's Cookies was officially born. Janice proudly states that many customers consider her their “personal baker." She describes her handmade cookies as artisanal, rich, and pleasing to all palates.

“I use simple whole ingredients," she says. "They go as well with a cup of coffee as a glass of milk ... or a glass of port.”

Janny’s Cookies currently offer eight varieties including Chocolate Chip, Italian Knots, Chocolate Truffle, and a wonderful vegan selection, Neapolitan Olive Oil Cookies. With so many requests and rave reviews, Janice plans to add more tastemakers as quickly as she can blend, stir and bake.

Cutomers can order from the Janny's Cookies website and, as noted earlier, the company delivers locally and does not charge for the service. 

 

 


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