Pretzels

I am awaiting pictures from my marvelous girl's weekend before I do a post on that. My camera is not great and I relied on others to take the pictures this year. That post will be coming soon.

Onto the pretzels. Yesterday I made a recipe from my friend Megan Maney (hi Megan!) called Lasagna Rolls. As I was getting it ready I remembered her saying the last time I was at her house that she had some recipes she wanted to try. I think she is nesting (due in a few weeks) and I wish at 8 months pregnant I was inspired to do new things. But I digress. One of the new things she wanted to make was pretzels and I thought, hmm, good idea Megan. I think I'll try it.

I found a recipe by Alton Brown (Good Eats on the Food Network) and gave it a shot. It was amazing. Seriously. And don't be intimidated. They were quite easy and delicious. Make them. Megan, if you haven't already done it just go for it. They are good for at least an extra 3 pregnancy pounds, guaranteed.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 T sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt (my salt wasn't blessed by a rabbi and still fine)
1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp.)
22 ounces all purpose flour, about 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces butter, melted
Oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 T water
Pretzel salt

Directions

Combine the water, sugar, and kosher salt into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and kneed until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for about 50-55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line 2 half pan sheets with parchment paper and lightly brush with oil. Set aside. (I didn't do this, I just oiled some cookie sheets.)

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24 inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flap spatula. Return to the baking sheet, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, about 12-14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

YUMMY!

p.s. Do you know how to make a nice warm environment for making dough rise? My sis taught me this trick and it works great. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. As soon as it's preheated turn the oven back off. Wait until it has cooled off but still warm and allow your dough to rise there. Maybe you know this. In that case you are awesome.