Leftover pretzels? Make caramel pretzel bread pudding for Thanksgiving
Pretzel trays are a staple of Philly parties. Here, they get turned into a luscious bread pudding.
Pretzels are a staple of Philly house parties, and they’re also a perfect base for a bread pudding. That’s exactly what pastry chef Rachel Sherman did with this very Philly dessert recipe. The salty outsides pair perfectly with the caramel, and the slight tanginess from the pretzel dough is a nice contrast to the sweetness. The trickiest thing about making this recipe is making the caramel—go slow, and don’t abandon the pot on the stove as you work, or you could end up with a saucepan full of scorched sugar. The bread pudding is best when you give the pretzels an overnight soak in the milk, sugar, and egg mixture, but if you really need to, you can cut that soak down to an hour or two. Stale pretzels are great here, but if you can’t wait that long, fresh pretzels work very well, too.
You can download the recipe here or scroll down.
Ingredients
For the soak
8 Philly style soft pretzels, chopped into 2-inch pieces
3 eggs
4 cups milk
1½ cups granulated sugar
For the caramel
½ pound butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup golden syrup (or corn syrup)
Directions
Prepare the soak
Place chopped pretzels into a large container.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and 1½ cups sugar until well blended and pour over the pretzels, pressing them down to make sure they are covered. If needed, you can put a small plate or bowl on top of the pretzels to ensure they are covered in the liquid. Let soak in the refrigerator overnight.
Prepare the caramel
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and heavy cream and heat until milk just begins to simmer and butter is melted. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla extract, and set aside.
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar with ½ cup of water. The mixture should resemble wet sand. Add in the golden syrup. (If there are granules of sugar above the water line, use a wet pastry brush to clean them off to avoid crystallization.)
Heat the sugar over medium-high heat until it turns dark amber in color, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully stream in the hot cream mixture, a little at a time, whisking constantly. This can splatter so be sure to pour it in a slow stream, do not dump it in all at once.
Set aside to cool. If you make this ahead of time, you can store it in the refrigerator, just let it come to room temperature before using.
For the pretzel caramel bread pudding
Heat the oven to 350ºF.
Mix together the soaked pretzels and half of the caramel and pour into a greased 9x13-inch pan.
Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
Remove the foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and pour the remaining caramel on top. Sprinkle with a little flaky salt, if desired.
— Recipe by Rachel Sherman, pastry chef and Food Lab Project Manager at Drexel University