How is the Chocolate Covered Pretzel pie made?
The Chocolate Covered Pretzel pie starts with a buttery, salty pretzel crust using Smales’ hard pretzels. The bakery breaks the pretzels into pieces and uses a food processor to grind them down.
After the crust is formed and baked, it is then filled with a rich, smooth chocolate cream that’s made with Esther Price’s chocolate and cooked on the stovetop. Partial to Pie Bakery Owner Marie Clark said she modifies the bakery’s chocolate cream filling by using ground chocolate from Esther Price instead of cocoa powder.
The cream filling is made in batches of four pies. The pies are then topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of ground chocolate.
Supporting local businesses
This is not the first time Clark has used products from these two businesses. She said she first made this pie about four years ago.
“January is our slowest month of the entire year, so I was just trying to come up with ideas to help support us, but also involve other local businesses,” Clark said.
She had planned on bringing the pie back sooner, but after getting pregnant and having a small child at home, plans were put on hold.
Emma Smales, the fifth generation owner of Smales Pretzel Bakery, said this wasn’t the first time another local business has used their pretzels.
The bakery previously partnered with Branch & Bone Artisan Ales on a beer.
“People are so creative,” Smales said. “This is the fun part — when you get to go see other people’s businesses.”
A high demand for pie
The Chocolate Covered Pretzel pie was more popular than they were planning the first time around.
“I think anytime that you put some iconic Dayton brands together the community shows up,” Smales said. “That’s one of the best things about Dayton. We show up for Dayton.”
Clark said they could not keep up and were selling the pie by the slice because they had a line of people waiting every morning.
“This time around, we spaced it out to two weeks instead of just one week and we allowed for preorders,” Clark said.
As of 7:05 a.m. Friday, Jan. 31, preorders were filled. The pie is now available only by the slice for walk-in customers Jan. 31, Feb. 1 and Feb. 4-8. There is a limit of three slices per person with slices costing $6 each.
The bakery operates with a small staff of five people, so they are only able to make about five Chocolate Covered Pretzel pies per day for the case — resulting in about 30 slices a day.
“It supports all three of us,” Clark said. “We also use local eggs (and) local milk. It helps support as many local businesses as we can all in one pie.”
MORE DETAILS
Partial to Pie is offering $1 off on any purchase of $10 or more through Feb. 8 for those that show a receipt or proof of purchase from Smales or Esther Price from Jan. 28 through Feb. 8.
If the bakery runs out of Chocolate Covered Pretzel pie slices, it still offers a full case of fruit and cream pies, quiche, brownies, baklava and pie fries.
Partial to Pie Bakery, which opened nearly seven years ago, is located at 200 Shroyer Road. For more information and updates, visit partialtopiebakery.com or the bakery’s Facebook or Instagram pages @partialtopiebakery).
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