Not Pretty, but Totally Delicious: Four Star Chocolate Pretzel Challah Bread Pudding

Some things are really hard to photograph.  Bread pudding is one of them.  It just looks like a mushy, lumpy mess.  But let me tell you -- this is the best tasting mushy, lumpy mess I have ever tasted.  This is Dorie Greenspan's Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, which I made with an LA specialty, pretzel challah.  Pretzel challah is challah on the inside, but with a soft-pretzel crust on the outside.  Yummy.

Every week, my son's preschool has a fundraiser where you can buy a challah for Shabbat.  Since we love challah and we want to support the school, we signed up.  However, it has meant that our freezer often gets super full of challah because we don't always have Shabbat dinner at home.  This bread pudding came about because I simply could not fit another challah in the freezer and I'm so glad I made it.  It takes about 10 minutes to throw together (if you don't count the time waiting for the bread to become stale) and the only complicated thing about it is that it is baked in a water bath, so you need a pan big enough to hold a 9x13 inch pan.

This was completely delicious and decadent   I loved the combination of the slightly salty pretzel challah with the sweet and chocolatey pudding.  It was a real treat.  If you find yourself with an extra pretzel challah, I highly recommend making this, although I assume it would be delicious with any kind of bread.  You can find the recipe here.

Ethnic Flavor: Well, I Tried

Whenever Rachel and I go to LA, we are treated to the wonderful pretzel challah from Got Kosher? Rebecca, of course, lives in LA, so she can have pretzel challah any time she wants! And now, with the magic of boiling water and baking soda, so can you!


One of my oldest childhood friends moved to Chicago today. She is going to make the world a better place through teaching sixth grade math, and everyone should wish her the best of luck! She came to my house for a long-delayed Shabbat dinner on Friday, and I thought that in her honor, I would make these tasty loaves. I found the recipe in Kosher By Design: Teens and 20-somethings, which my parents thoughtfully bought for me when I moved out of their apartment. 


I titled this post "Well, I Tried," not because of the taste of the challah (amazing) but rather the way it looks, which is totally wonky and strange. I had a lot of trouble extracting the loaves after I dipped them in the boiling mixture, and one ended up kind of weirdly extended while the other one just got completely misshapen. But whatever. Salt! How can you go wrong? (But if you have a better method for extracting them than desperately and spastically maneuvering two spatulas, do let me know.) I halved the recipe and made two loaves but the challot stretched out in the water and were fairly sizable. I doubt that larger loaves would have fit in my boiling solution, but if you have a wider-mouthed pot, be my guest. Also, the dough is very sticky with only 3 (or 6, if you make the whole recipe) cups of flour, so be sure that your hands and your surface are well-floured when you braid the loaves.


As I said, it tasted amazing; plus, it takes less time to rise than my usual challah recipe, so good if you're in a hurry. There's a distinct baking soda taste - unsurprising, in a recipe that involves 2/3 cup of baking soda. It's definitely best warm but I found that it was still moist and delicious the next day. There was no next day after that; Brianna and I ate an entire loaf between us on Friday night, and then my roommates and I made short work of the rest on Saturday. You can find the recipe here; now you don't have to go all the way to Los Angeles to get your fix!

Bullseye? Buckeye!

Every year, my friend Ruthie throw an ice cream sundae birthday party, where she provides the ice cream and the guests compete to win the best topping award. This year, however, was Ruthie's last New York party, because she is moving to Ohio-- the Buckeye State. For those of you who are interested, the buckeye is a nut, but it is also a delicious chocolate peanut butter candy. Ruthie, in honor of her impending move, held two contests this year, one for the best topping and one for the best interpretation of a buckeye. Naturally, being a Baking Sister and generally ridiculously competitive about things that don't matter, I planned to not only enter, but also to win.

And I am happy to report, dear readers, that I did just that by inventing a delicious chocolate peanut butter pretzel caramel concoction. The perfect decadent combination of salty and sweet. Just a warning-- when you add the caramel to the chocolate, it gets very sticky and does not want to attach to the peanut butter balls. So patience is a virtue. Dip, wait, and enjoy!

Peanut butter pretzel balls:
1 cup of butter, softened (not melted)
1 1/2 cups of smooth peanut butter
6 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 pound of pretzels, broken into small pieces but not ground

Blend the butter, sugar and peanut butter in a stand mixer slowly, until well blended. Add the pretzels and mix slowly until the mixture is just blended. Roll up the mixture into 1 inch balls. Stick a toothpick into each ball and put them in the freezer until complete hard.

Melt 1 bag of chocolate chips in a double boiler. Mix it with 4 oz caramel sauce. Keeping the mixture on low heat, dip the balls in by the toothpick until about half of the ball is coated. Repeat until all of the peanut butter balls have been dipped in chocolate. Remove the toothpicks and place in the fridge to cool, until you are ready to eat them.

Like the Old Days: Pretzel Rolls

Back when we used to go to Dalton, there was a bakery called Glendale's on 87th and Lex. They had many delicious things (frozen hot chocolate, anyone?) but I think my favorite thing they made was probably their pretzel rolls. Alas, time passed, as it has a way of doing. I graduated (that was not sad), Glendale's closed, I started only eating in kosher places. It seemed like the end of an era.

But then something amazing happened! While thumbing through the latest Kosher by Design, I found a recipe for pretzel challah! I was nervous to try out the recipe, but my desire to return to the joys of my youth was too strong, so I set out to conquer my fears. I did decide to make them in roll form because they're slightly easier to handle and because they were for a dinner party, but the idea remained.

I needn't have worried. This recipe is pretty easy. The thing that gives it its pretzel flavor is boiling the dough briefly in a baking soda bath, but other than that, it's more or less like other bread recipes. I thought these were delicious. The only thing to note is that if you want to freeze them, you shouldn't add salt because they'll get soggy. They make a great accompaniment to dinner, especially soup, and also are great on their own. You can find the recipe here.

My Greatest Creation: Chocolate Covered Pretzel Ice Cream Cake

Last year, for my friend Amy's birthday, I created a delicious ice cream brownie concoction that won me rave reviews for excellent cake inventing. So when I volunteered to make Amy's cake again this year, I felt that I had to raise the bar-- especially because by her next birthday, she'll be married and living in Boston, far away from me. I decided to take the winning elements of last year's cake, and mix in something that everyone loves-- the chocolate covered pretzel.


This cake is actually really easy to make, but it seems deceptively fancy because of all of the elements. It starts with a crust made of pretzels, which both adds a little bit of salt to the pie, and has the added bonus of not getting soggy. While I would recommend cutting pieces of this cake on the smaller side because it's so rich (I used low fat ice cream and it was still super intense), don't be surprised if your guests come back for more.


Chocolate Covered Pretzel Ice Cream Pie:


2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup (give or take) hot fudge
1 1.5 quart container of vanilla ice cream
15 oz chocolate covered pretzels (I recommend Nestle Flips)
Caramel sauce to garnish


You can find the recipe for the pretzel crust here.


Make the crust in a 9 or 10 inch pie pan. Before it cools, pour a layer of store-bought hot fudge over the crust. Then put it in the freezer and allow it to set.


Before you take the crust out of the freezer, allow the ice cream to soften. Grind up about 2/3 of the chocolate covered pretzels and mix them up with the ice cream until they are evenly distributed. Spread the ice cream evenly over the crust.


Drizzle caramel across the top of the cake. Add extra chocolate covered pretzels around the edges to decorate. Return pie to the freezer and allow it to set before serving.