A five-pound milk chocolate cornucopia filled with chocolate goodies at the Red Bank Chocolate Shoppe. Shop owner Amy Dunfee, below. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

By SUSAN ERICSON

Need an impressive host’s gift for Thanksgiving dinner this year? Forget the traditional wine and flowers. Wow them with some unexpected handcrafted chocolates.

Better still, bring a rafter of turkeys (yup, that’s what they call a group of turkeys) in dark and milk chocolate from the of Red Bank Chocolate Shoppe. And if you really want to knock their socks off, spring for the chocolate-filled horn of plenty.

A traditional one-pound box of mixed chocolates. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

Red Bank resident and shop owner Amy Dunfee, has been creating chocolate confections and running this store on White Street for 14 years.

“I worked at a store in Spring Lake in high school and while I was going to college,” she tells PieHole. “Afterward, I took a leap of faith and opened my own, because I love working with chocolate.”

In the fall season, anything she amkes with caramel is a good seller, including the caramel apples, Dunfee says. Her best sellers year-round? Dark sea salt caramels and the “Red Bank Twist,” a pretzel with caramel, peanut butter and chocolate.

A one-pound box of mixed chocolates runs $24.95, while the enormous cornucopia – filled with a pound-and-a-half of chocolates –  will set you back $84.95. The turkeys cost $3.25 for small; $10.95 for medium; and $24.95 for the large. Dunfee also has milk- or dark-chocolate lollipops in the shape of a turkey for $2.50 a piece.

That group of small people who have been banished to their own little folding table in the corner of the dining room would probably love a centerpiece in the form of a chocolate turkey.

Red Bank Chocolate Shoppe is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 to 8; and Sunday from 12 to 6.