The Ultimate Comfort Food: Homemade Challah Rolls and Decadent Chocolate Pudding
Friday Nights Just Got Better
If you enjoy this post, you can thank Megan over at
for all her encouragement. Megan is a wonderful person and a talented up-and-coming writer so be sure to check her out.On Friday nights I like to gather my family and friends together. We nourish our spirit with each other’s company and conversation and we nourish our bodies with all the delicious foods we’ve prepared. The pandemic has shown me that waiting around for an excuse to gather is a waste of precious time. Let us cherish each other while we can. If you are ever in my neck of the woods, let me know and I will feed you, too.
Here is what I prepared this past Friday:
Homemade Challah Rolls & Loaf
Starter: Chopped Salad
Soup: Golden Potato & Leek Soup with a Mascarpone swirl
Main: Marinated Ribeye
Side: Spaghetti Squash Kugel
Dessert: Decadent Chocolate Pudding
This week's challah rolls. They grew sooo big. Can you imagine going to a steak house and being served a basket of these beauties? You’d plotz! LOL The interior of these rolls is so silky soft, like eating a cloud of bread.
Here is my salad. Can you tell my eyes are bigger than my stomach? But the chopped salad was so very tasty! Tom calls this “Shop Vac Salad” because it's both wet and dry
Lord, please save me from sassy little brothers.
Shop Vac Style Chopped Salad
Everything in the chopped salad is marinated in my creamy vinaigrette dressing for several hours and then placed on a bed of chopped iceberg and romaine
Ingredients:
Grape tomato halves
Thinly sliced red onion
Red bell pepper chunks
Diced avocado
Diced hard boiled eggs
Thinly sliced celery
Large black olives
Thick slices of mini Persian cucumbers
Served on a bed of chopped Iceberg and Romaine lettuce
I made Chunky Golden Potato and Leeks Soup with a swirl of Mascarpone cheese to finish it. It was so delicious that Tom and I both forgot to take any pictures. Tom even went back for a second bowl and still neither of us thought to take a pic
(sexy soup picture pending)
Golden Potato & Leek Soup
2 tablespoons of oil (I used canola)
2-3 leeks, chopped and soaked to remove the sand then drain
2 minced garlic cloves
1lb of gold potatoes, chopped into large cubes (peeling is optional, I didn’t because mine were so thin skinned)
32oz (1 quart) unsalted stock (vegetable or chicken, yes you can use water and some bullion cubes)
extra bullions cubes or salt (optional) I used a tablespoon of Osem chicken style Consomme mix
dash poultry seasoning (optional)
fresh ground black pepper (measure with your heart)
4oz Mascarpone Cheese (you can substitute cream cheese)
Heat up a 4 quart pot on medium heat until a flick of water skitters around the pot. This took me 2-3 minutes.
Add the 2T oil and swirl it around. Add in the drained chopped leeks. Stir a little and cover for 3-5 minutes, until the leeks just start to turn golden around the edges.
Uncover and add the minced garlic, the potato chunks and the stock or water. Stir and cover. Let it come to a simmer (light bubbling), this will take 10-20 minutes.
After it’s started bubbling, stir it and taste the soup broth. Does it taste bland? Add a bullions cube or two. Stir a little bit more.
Cover and let simmer another 10-20 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender.
Once the potatoes are tender, press the potatoes with your cooking spoon to break them up more. Muddle them as much as you like.
Add a dash or two of poultry seasoning. Stir. Taste the soup. Be careful it’s hot. Add several grinds of fresh black pepper. Stir. Taste. What do we think? Pretty good? Does it need more salt? Add another bit of bullion. More herb flavor? Add another dash of poultry seasoning. Does it need more garlic? They say garlic is good for your heart.
Once the soup tastes “Pretty Good”, turn off the heat. Add in the mascarpone cheese and let it warm up for a moment before gentle swirling your cooking spoon around just a little bit. It’s done. Let’s eat!
Makes 2-6 servings depending on your appetite. Enjoy!
This newsletter has everything including luscious beefy photos, in the yellow bowl is the Spaghetti Squash Kugel. The recipe will be forthcoming, if you let me know that you’re interested. It’s hard to gauge which recipes readers want. Feedback is our friend
I once heard that many of the most rich and powerful men and women in the world love chocolate pudding for dessert but because swanky, sophisticated restaurants don’t offer it, they never get to eat any because for these kinds of people dining is a performance, a show of their power and sophistication. That is why I went about making the most decadent, indulgent, upmarket nursey school type of chocolate pudding recipe.
Decadent Chocolate Pudding
5oz sugar (1/2 cup heaping)
10g dutched cocoa powder (4 teaspoons, I used Hershey’s Special Dark, you can substitute regular cocoa powder, I won’t tell)
25g unsweetened cocoa powder (3 tablespoons, I used Hershey’s)
45g cornstarch (1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon, I used Argo)
3 fingered pinch of salt (kosher)
32oz whole milk (1 quart/4 cups)
20g vanilla extract (measure with your heart)
3oz dark chocolate bar, broken into pieces (measure with your heart. I will die on this hill, y’all)
You’re going to need a 3-4 quart size microwave safe bowl for this and a sturdy whisk. Also, a microwave, heat proof/oven safe gloves and a trivet or thick towel for your countertop.
In your big microwave safe bowl dump the sugar, cocoa powders, cornstarch and salt. Whisk it til it’s fairly well combined.
Slowly whisk in the milk. There will be floating cocoa bits, that’s fine.
Microwave for 3 minutes on HIGH. Whisk well.
As it heats up and thickens, it may get lumpy. Just keep whisking and microwaving until it’s fully thickened. Trust the process. Think of the thickest gravy you’ve ever seen, that’s what fully thickened molten hot lava pudding is going to look like. Be careful and keep you fingers and hands safe. Use heat proof gloves to move the bowl back and forth out of the microwave onto your counter top section that your placed the thick towel or trivet.
Microwave for 2-1/2 minutes on HIGH. Whisk well.
Microwave for 2 minutes on HIGH. Whisk well. Notice that the liquid should feel very hot.
Keep microwaving on HIGH for 1-2 minutes whisking very well after each time until the pudding had really thickened. This took me about 2 more times but this really depends on the wattage of your microwave and the strength of your local electrical grid.
Once you have hot thickened pudding, whisk in the chocolate pieces and the vanilla extract. You’ll need to whisk until all the chocolate has melted. Or don’t and leave little semi melted chocolate surprises. Cover and let the pudding cool for 30 minutes or so and pop into the fridge or eat it right out of the bowl like the 21st Century goblin your neighbors suspect you are.
Makes 4-8 servings or 1 goblin serving
I am 20 percent comforted just looking at these
The Sassiness is the spice of life that keeps the day so fun 😊