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This Soft Pretzel Salted Caramel Bread Pudding uses soft pretzels and a caramel custard all topped with salted caramel sauce.


So I guess I never really planned on bringing it up, but due to people being highly observant and the overwhelming amount of email that I received, I will address it.

Yep, I weigh less.

A lot less.

Apparently some of you noticed this when I posted the picture of me in my glasses. 😀

No I did not have weight loss surgery (the most common question asked).

I did it the old fashion way, move more, eat less.

I, as you know, have always been what one may refer to as a fat advocate.

Meaning that if you are truly content with your size and are healthy then be whatever size you want to be.

So last year in March I wrote a post about how I got an abscessed tooth and lost 7 pounds in two days.

What I didn’t say is that while I was at the doctor’s office they freaked me out.

See, I have always had great health numbers, no matter what size I was.

My guess is because I stay active.

But when I went in for my tooth pain my blood pressure was sky high.

The Urgent Care doctor insisted that it was my weight and not the tooth that was causing this.

He freaked me out to say the least hitting me with “this is the only heart you have”.

He sent me home with water pills (which I didn’t take) and told me to go to my primary care physician the next week.

Which I did.

Only to have my blood pressure be 116/73.

So technically my health was fine but I took it as a sign.

Most of my adult life I have been on a medication that made me gain weight.

I told my doctor enough is enough and I didn’t want to take it anymore, find me an alternative.

Joined Weight Watchers on March 17th 2009, who coincidentally, I now work for.

I had to choose Weight Watcher for an obvious reason…I run a baking blog.

I had to find some plan that would allow me to eat what I made for my blog.

This girl is not going through life depriving herself. I still eat every thing I make for this blog.

The main difference is just how much.

Let’s take this bread pudding for instance.

The old me would have eaten the whole thing.

The new me eats one serving and is done with it.

Luckily for me I have a goat and two hockey teams to pawn food off on.

And if they can’t take it, I give it to the people at my Physical Therapy office since I love to visit that place so much. 🙂

Speaking of that, this Soft Pretzel Salted Caramel Bread Pudding, is kind of out there.

Awhile back I had considered writing a cookbook (update…I have one now), this bread pudding was an idea for the book.

Since salted caramel has been all the rage I wanted a spin on that.

The idea came from me eating a pretzel at a hockey game and my friends kid was eating McDonald’s apple dippers with the caramel sauce.

He didn’t want the sauce so I kept dipping the pretzel into the sauce.

Tasted pretty darn good.

So I went with it.

Some people wanted to know how much I lost.

Not going to tell you.

Just going to say that I used to only be able to shop at certain stores or parts of stores.

I went from double digits to singles in clothing.

I can shop wherever now.

Which is bad for the credit card statement. 😛
P.S. It’s a great day to buy my cookbook Holy Sweet!


Want More Bread Pudding Recipes?

Bailey’s Irish Nut Bread Pudding

Key Lime Pie Bread Pudding

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bread Pudding

Sticky Toffee Pudding Bread Pudding

Monkey Bread Bread Pudding

Soft Pretzel Salted Caramel Bread Pudding

Soft Pretzel Salted Caramel Bread Pudding

Ingredients

  • For the Bread Pudding:
  • 16 Super Pretzel Soft Pretzels (these are the smaller ones, not the full size, if using the full size ones, I would guess about 8-10 of them)…they come with a salt packet. You will want to salt your pretzels. If you don’t use the salt you will want to use the salted caramel sauce instead of plain caramel sauce.
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 4 egg yolks
  • ¼ cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/3 cup caramel sauce (not salted), divided
  • For the Salted Caramel Sauce
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons gray sea salt, crushed

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Tear the pretzels into pieces. Place half of them onto bottom of a prepared baking dish (buttered 8-x-x8).
  3. Pour 1/3 cup caramel sauce over the pretzels in the pan.
  4. Mix the egg yolks, brown sugar, Lyle’s Golden Syrup, and vanilla together in a bowl.
  5. Then stir in the heavy cream. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
  6. Pour ½ the custard over the pretzels and caramel. Press down the bread pieces until the pretzels are soaked with the custard.
  7. Place remaining pretzels on top of the soaked bread.
  8. Pour the remaining custard over and again, press down on the pretzel pieces until they are soaked with the custard.
  9. You will most likely have extra custard. Don’t feel like you have to use all the custard.
  10. Place pan into another pan that will hold a water bath.
  11. Bake the bread pudding for 45 minutes until golden on top.
  12. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm with the remaining caramel sauce.
  13. ****Only use salted version of caramel sauce if you did not use the salt that came with your pretzels. If you did use salt on your pretzels, then change the amount of salt to ¼ tsp in this recipe.
  14. For the Salted Caramel Sauce:
  15. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup and bring to a boil.
  16. Using a wet pastry brush, wash down any crystals on the side of the pan.
  17. Boil over high heat until a deep amber caramel forms, about 6 minutes.
  18. Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully whisk in the cream, butter and salt.
  19. Let the caramel cool to room temperature.
  20. Pour over the bread pudding when serving.
© Peabody

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Comments

  1. Whoa girl you look awesome! I love that you are doing this the healthy way…and while still eating dessert! You are someone for all of us to look up to!

    God that bread pudding sounds good. I love my sweet and salty…

    Reply

  2. Delicious dessert and very sexy dress! Glad you’re feeling good and healthy, thanks for sharing, I could do with losing a few pounds. I guess doing beurre blanc and hollandaise in class doesnt help!!

    Reply

  3. I also am a Weight Watcher that ended up working for them. Like you it appealed because not eating dessert was not an option,as I worked in my family’s cake shop.

    Congratulations on losing the weight you look sensational & I know how hard it can be to maintain your focus.

    I intend using some of my bonus exercise points to make this recipe soon!

    Thanks

    Reply

  4. I am impressed! I thought you were shrinking, but coz there weren’t that many pictures of you beforehand, had nothing to compare to.

    Looking rather svelte there! Good on ya!

    Reply

  5. I thought that you had lost weight… Wow, I am impressed! You look fabulous. Congrats!

    OMG, that pudding is incredibly tempting! What a great idea.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply

  6. Pea you were always gorgeous to me. Now you are hot and gorgeous! Loving this dessert and you are a naughty one feeding us all the dessert on your blog while eating healthy behind it.

    Hugs!

    Reply

  10. Good for you! You look amazing! I’ve been toying with the idea of joining Weight Watchers to get the last few baby pounds off and I think you may have just convinced me.

    The pretzel pudding looks a-mazing. I would have never though to use pretzel in bread pudding.

    Reply

  13. Wow! You look great! I didn’t knwo what you looked like before the pic w/ the glasses, but seeing the comparison, wow! That’s fantastic.

    Reply

  15. That bread pudding looks wonderful – almost as good as you! Congrats and keep up the good work 🙂 I know how it is to balance a love of sweets with a healthy lifestyle!

    Reply

  17. OMG you could be, like, in an ad or something, Pea. Way to go. (I hope I don’t get an abscess though.)
    Yay for bread pudding! I’ve never made a caramel version yet, but not for lack of wanting! 🙂

    Reply

  20. WOW! You look fantastic!!!!!!! I have this terrible terrible sweet tooth. I’ve always wanted to get rid of the freshman 45 that’s been hanging around for 15 years and only very recently did I get a scolding from my ob/gyn to shed more weight from what little I’ve lost so far… GULPS! Good going!!!!!

    Reply

  22. this looks amazing! i love your imagination 🙂 congrats on the weight loss, you look fantastic. but, more importantly, i bet you feel so much better and healthier. you truly embody all things in moderation, which in my opinion, is the best way to live life.

    Reply

  23. Congratulations on the weight loss! Keep those yummy looking desserts coming. This one looks amazing.

    Reply

  25. Congrats! I agree with you–I bake when I want to, but I keep an active lifestyle so that I can eat and not feel guilty!

    I love your blogs!

    Reply

  26. Congrats! I went through a similar experience… it is lovely to shop where ever and pick up sizes that I never imagined fitting into… but one should never give up baked goods! just in moderation! 🙂

    Reply

  29. Thanks for sharing your story. It is inspirational – especially since you’ve gone about it in such a healthy/balanced way. Happy that we’ll still be seeing these awesome treats from you – just in moderation! 🙂

    Reply

  33. Wow! I would have never thought to use pretzels for bread pudding, how creative!

    And congrats on your weight loss! It’s always inspiring when people have the will power to do something positive like that, keep up the good work 🙂

    Reply

  34. You look amazing! And so does that pudding! Three cheers for WW! Five years and 100 pounds later, I’m still trying to master the coexistance of eating and baking 🙂

    Reply

  35. Don’t give up on the cookbook dream…it would be fabulous.

    The bread pudding looks so good & so do you!

    Reply

  36. you look great! I do WW too and I love that I can still eat “real” food and never have to eat a bite of processed diet food. I don’t quite have the will power to only eat one serving of my baking though. Someday!

    Reply

  37. you look fantastic! i started WW in June of last year and lost 25lbs by October. I haven’t counted points since then and have maintained. 🙂 Just started counting again to try to lose another 10lbs but i love being able to still munch on the goodies i make. WW is great! 🙂

    Reply

  38. You really do look amazing, Peabody! Congrats on figuring out that fine balance between healthy eating and having a baking blog! 😉

    Reply

  39. You look gorgeous Peabody!!! I am going through a weight-loss phase myself.. but like you, I will not ever completely give up my desserts!! Congrats on the hot new bod! The bread pudding looks insanely yummy!!

    Reply

  40. Awesome job on the bread pudding and your weight loss. I also love to eat and had to get it under control. The easiest thing you can do to try portion control to lose weight. The hardest thing is to starve yourself or turn into a rabbit and that is no way to live. If people would just eat normal portions of stuff and drink water instead of soda the weight will come off. Also try to spend as much time on your feet doing anything.

    Reply

  41. Congratulations! You look fantastic!

    And good for you for finding an alternative to taking medicine!

    You’ve inspired me….thank you.

    Reply

  43. Two things:

    a) you look awesome. This is inspiring! I need to get off my behind and join Weight Watchers.

    b) This may replace Krispy Kreme bread pudding as my go to recipe. I’ve got to try it!

    Reply

  45. You look fantastic! Love the cheeky skirt. I’m a big proponent of eat whatever you want in portions that make sense. You should write a bread pudding only cook book! I would buy that.

    Reply

  48. Congrats! You look fab! You sound like you feel very happy. (does that even make sense?!!) This bread pudding looks like it’s to die for. I love the idea of the pretzel on top too. And you should SO write a cookbook!

    Reply

  54. You look great! I do WW also for the same reason – I like to be able to eat anything. My numbers have never been bad, but after a few months of WW recipes, they look great. True, this is the only heart I have…

    Reply

  55. Wow, you look absolutely amazing. Just wanted to tell you how impressed I am.

    But I am also super excited to read that you eat raw vegan for most of the day. Way to go, girl. I am a raw vegan myself but also love to bake. I don’t eat what I bake because after eating such a clean diet, it actually makes me feel unwell to eat wheat, sugar, etc. But baking itself is so much fun, such a creative process, I can’t not do it :-).

    I am glad you can life healthfully and still follow your passion. And you can inspire people.
    Well done!!!

    Reply

  57. Wow, you look great…and I bet you feel great too! Has your hockey benefited? 🙂 A pretzel bread pudding, huh? Does the pretzel lose enough of its inherent toughness to soak up everything? One of my favorite parts of bread pudding is the “sogginess!”

    Reply

  58. You look fantastic, Pea! It’s great that WW allows you to make your cake and eat it, too. Or, bread pudding, in this case.

    Reply

  59. I’ve only been visiting your blog for a couple monts, but when I read the glasses post and saw your photo, I thought, “Wow — she’s so trim. Very impressive being around baked goods all the time …” It’s inspiring to learn the backstory and how you conquered the issue. Cheers to your good health and congratulations!!

    Reply

  61. I’ve seen you a few months ago and you are more gorgeous in person…although that is a great photo! Being a lover of all things bread pudding I just love!! this one. Salted caramel and pretzel! I want a dish of that.

    Reply

  62. HOLY JAMA LLAMA!!!!!!!!!!! You look fantastic! You look happy in both of the pictures, but there is a glow about you in the 2nd one. 😀

    It’s great that you don’t deprive yourself but just examine your portion sizes. I find it so depressing when I see women starving themselves and denying themselves happiness (yes, I believe food = happiness) so your post is a pleasant break from that. 🙂

    Reply

  63. Good for you! I have been on weight watchers for most of my life. They really work well in letting you eat whatever you want (in smaller portions). 🙂

    Reply

  64. You look smmmmokin! The only thing that comes close to looking that good is that bread pudding – that pretzel on top is so inviting.

    Reply

  65. Wow. You look awesome! Gives me encouragement that I CAN lose the 10 pounds I’ve gained since I started my baking blog-right after losing 40 pounds doing Biggest Loser online! I have hope.
    You really look great!
    And the pretzel/caramel bread pudding–Whoa!

    Reply

  66. Have you tried putting this together the night before and baking it the next day? I wonder if it would work.

    Reply

  67. I HAD to comment today 🙂 You look GORGEOUS in the second picture. I mean, seriously, you look HOT! 🙂
    You go girl! Doesn’t it feel awesome to become healthy all by natural means? I was very proud of myself when I did the same last year.

    Reply

  68. You look absolutely amazing and beautiful! I bake loads but because I’ve also lost a lot of weight lately I can’t bring myself to eat anything I make – just too worried I’d scoff the whole cake/tart/whatever. Your will power to be able to eat just enough is really impressive.

    Reply

  69. I’ve never really understood bread pudding, but maybe if I tried it…?

    And Peabody: You look great. 🙂

    Reply

  70. Your excitement shines through. I imagine you have so much more energy. I have been baking too many sweets lately, I need to have more friends who are willing to take the leftovers.

    Reply

  71. Wow! You look amazing! I tip my hat to you. I have had weight issues all my life and am struggling once again to get myself into good habits. You are inspiring!

    Reply

  73. Wow, congrats on the weight loss! I’ve done something similar (through modifying what I eat and exercising more) and it’s really the best thing I’ve done for myself. You are looking so great! And yes, shopping anywhere is GREAT but also bad for the finances! Hahaha… But it’s just so good, you know?

    Reply

  75. I can tell that you are really happy with your weight now, so congratulations! I’m a Weight Watcher also. I know this is a baking blog, but I’d love it if you would share one or two typical meals you eat for breakfast and lunch. Not the recipes, just a rough outline of what you eat. Yes, I could buy a raw vegan cookbook, but I’m asking because you obviously love good food, so I’m curious what types of vegan foods you choose to eat.

    Reply

  76. WOW! Good for you. That is fantastic. I wish I had the get up and go as well as time to do this as well. I really should look into weight watchers. I do need to lose the weight. My problem is, I concentrate on everyone else in my house but myself. With Colby needs, I am so low on the totem. And I too, love to bake. Dammit.

    Reply

  78. Pea, you look great! I thought you had slimmed down some, but I didn’t realise how much. I’ve also lost substantial weight in the last three years due to some health concerns( food intolerances due to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome). Weight Watchers is the way to go for weight loss, because you can eat everything in moderation…no crash diets like on some other weight loss programs.Good for you.

    Reply

  80. Look at gorgeous you! You should be so proud. Not for the weight loss per se, but for doing it the “right” way and for wanting to be healthy. You look terrific and I’m so glad to hear you feel good too.

    Reply

  81. My biggest congrats to you on your weight loss. I lost 50 pounds on weight watchers, being a pastry chef is not an easy thing! i’ve unfortunately gained a bunch back but i think i’ve just gotten my kick in the ass to get back on it..thanks for that =)

    Reply

  82. 1. Congrats! I work for WW too–it’s a great company, and I love it for the same reason you gave–you can eat whatever you want, as long as you do it in the proper quantities!

    2. Awesome idea. I LOVE sweet and salty together. This sounds like a winner…

    Reply

  84. First off, you are a baking genius! as I always say. and two: you are an inspiration. I lost like 8 lbs since january to get down to a 10, but I still want to lose more to get to an 8! I am so proud of you!!!

    Reply

  87. OMG! Girl….congrats. You look stunning! I always thought you were so cute before, but understanding the struggle, I get it. You motivate me, now! Of course this bread pudding doesn’t help! …lol

    Reply

  88. I’m sooo happy for you! I used to work at a major weight loss company, but since then I’ve had two kids and developed a baking hobby. I’m trying to get back down to a semi-normal weight but it is definitely a struggle with all the goodies! You’re an inspiration, thanks for the post!

    Reply

  91. I’ve followed your blog for a long time now but I’ve only ever commented a couple times… But today I just had to leave you a comment to say, you look fabulous! Keep it up, you look great 😀

    Reply

  95. I realize this post is kind of old now (I’m just getting caught up!), but DAMN, girl! You look fantastic! (And if you can do it with all of that delicious stuff you make, there’s no excuse for the rest of us!)

    Reply

  96. You look marvelous, dahling! You were out there doing the two things that can actually help you lose weight, eat less, move more, while others sit and wait for the magic pill. And all the while continuing to share the baking love with your loyal followers. Well done!

    Reply

  99. I just rediscovered your blog and it’s fabulous as always. I’m glad your blood pressure is normal and you look great now and you looked great then.

    Reply

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