Better than Expected

One of the hazards of conducting shopping exchanges in a language you aren't very good at is the probability of ending up with something you didn't want, usually in large quantities.  Which is how I ended up with 1.5 kilos of apricots (see the previous blog about cheeseblobsoup).  Well, this time I ended up with more pretzels than I needed.  I actually need a half a pretzel every time I go to the bakery because that's about all Charlotte eats.  So when I ended up with 4, I knew there was going to be something creative that needed to happen.

Luckily I"m going through my backlog of 378 old cooking magazines.  Ok, so its not actually that many, but it is in the 3 digits.  I know, I have a problem.  Add it to the list.......

Anyway, one of the articles had a "what to do with pretzels" theme, and there were some good sweet-savory combos.  Of course this was an American magazine so they meant the hard pretzels that you consume like chips while you watch football in a dark dive bar while hoping one of the med students down the bar is going to take her top off to get a free tee shirt......  But the same concepts apply to the large bakery pretzels here in Germany.

The result of the pretzel, magazine, inability-to-articulate-quantities combination was a very, very good pretzel bread pudding with caramel sauce.  It was like the best combination of bread pudding and salted caramel.  I was very surprised by how good it was.  I just bought another bag of pretzels to try it again to make sure it wasn't just the sekt talking that made it so good.

Caramel Pretzel Bread Pudding

2 day-old pretzels, torn into 1" pieces
1 egg
1/3C heavy cream
1/2C Sugar
1/2C Caramel Sauce

Grease a small baking dish and preheat the over to 350.  Mix egg, cream, and sugar in a bowl.  Toss pretzel pieces in mixture.  Put half into the baking dish.  Pour half the caramel sauce on top.  Layer the other half of the pretzel mixture on top.  Bake for roughly 20min (mostly done, but not completely).  Take the dish out and top with the remaining caramel sauce.  Continue baking until dark brown and bubbly on top.  Serve hot.  Top with more caramel sauce if you need extra calories, or more sweetness.

Caramel Sauce recipe to follow shortly, need a shower and Charlotte is finally asleep for a nap.  Don't let me forget to add it.  I have a bad habit of saying I'll add something and then forgetting......