The Best Trader Joe’s Recipe, According to Employees

When it comes to Trader Joe’s recipes, the choices are truly endless. You can go the quick route and opt for easy TJ’s recipes using a variety of the chain’s freezer aisle finds, or you can plan by meal and try your luck with a variety of Trader Joe’s breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, all made with ingredients you can find in those wondrous aisles. No matter what you choose, there’s no denying that Trader Joe’s meals are a cinch to make, relatively healthy, and downright delicious.

But, which Trader Joe’s recipe reigns supreme? According to the latest episode of the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast, there’s currently one dish that’s a cut above the rest. As podcast co-hosts Matt Sloan, vice president of marketing, and Tara Miller, marketing director at Trader Joe’s, explain, TJ’s recently held its annual Store Recipe Contest, in which team members from any TJ’s location can develop a recipe using at least five Trader Joe’s ingredients (along with pre-approved pantry staples) and enter their scrumptious dish to win a prize. The entries are then ranked and prepared and judged by a jury of very discerning Trader Joe’s employees.

This year’s “runaway winner”, which beat out 422 other recipes to take the top prize, is called Brooklyn Babka Ice Cream Pie. It was created by the staff of the Trader Joe’s store in Woodland Hills, California, and uses a handful of TJ’s favorites—French Vanilla Ice Cream, Speculoos Cookies, Chocolate Brooklyn Babka, and Double Chocolate Wafer Cookies.

According to the team members who crafted the “delicious” winning dessert, the idea for it arose about a year ago after one employee mixed the French Vanilla Ice Cream with chunks of the Chocolate Brooklyn Babka. “Just those two things by themselves were mind-blowing. They were an amazingly good combination, and just so simple. It was so good,” said an employee named Sean. “The babka is bitter and chocolatey, and our ice cream is so rich and creamy. It just worked perfectly.”

But the work wasn’t done yet! To elevate the loaded ice cream, the team decided to make it into a pie using Speculoos Cookies as the crust. In need of a garnish, the Double Chocolate Wafer Cookies joined in on the fun. Once the crew members went home and made the pie, they knew they had something special (and tasty). 

The ways in which the babka and ice cream were used also helped catapult this dessert to the top spot. “Both the babka and the vanilla ice cream together were a totally new and different thing from each of those products on their own,” Sloan shared. “What was so interesting about that is that it became this totally different thing.” The combo of those two ingredients is so tasty that Sloan noted the Trader Joe’s Powers That Be are toying with the idea of releasing a vanilla ice cream with babka pieces.

And while the ice cream and babka work wonderfully together, the Double Chocolate Wafer Cookies add a touch of bitterness, which helps balance the pie, and offer some much-needed crunchiness. “Every ingredient we put in there is something that we all love,” explained a TJ’s employee named Jenny. “It all kind of made sense.”

Miller agreed, adding, “All those flavors really went well together. Never in a million years would it have occurred to me to chop up the babka and put it into the ice cream.”

Check out the step-by-step recipe for the Brooklyn Babka Ice Cream Pie so you can make it at home.