On a warm September morning, I tasted one of the most memorable pastries of 2026: a “pretzel-fied” pain au chocolat at Reality Kitchen.
Think of it as a chocolate croissant, but with pretzel dough: salty-sweet, chocolate melting into flaky pastry, the distinct tang of lye, which gives pretzels that burnished brown exterior.
Clare Van Hoven, a pastry chef at the Eugene bakery, had made them earlier that morning. When I arrived, she was about to whip up caramel brownies with George Beverly, another employee. As someone with strong opinions on the ideal brownie texture, I was curious how they’d prepare them…