Friday, January 2, 2009

Soft Pretzels

These were really tasty and the kids had lots of fun making them. They had a hard time manipulating the dough, so I had to do most of it, but they had fun trying.

This is adapted from a Food Network recipe.

Soft Pretzels














~ 2 tablespoons warm water, plus 1 1/3 cups warm water
~ 1 package dry yeast
~ 1/3 cup brown sugar
~ 4.5 cups flour (I used 2.5c all-purpose and 2c White Wheat and will probably switch the proportions next time)
~ 1/2 cup baking soda
~ Kosher salt
~ Cashew Butter for mommy

In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 tablespoons warm water with the yeast to dissolve it. Then stir in the remaining warm water and brown sugar.

Place bowl on a mixer and using a dough hook, gradually add the flour and continue mix. If using whole wheat flour, add it last.

Turn it out onto a work surface and beat the tar out of it to make it as smooth as possible.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Bring 2 quarts of water and the baking soda to boil in a stock pot (it will bubble up considerably - you need room to allow that).

Cut dough up into golf ball size pieces. Then roll them into worms, 1/2-3/4" thick. Shape into classic "pretzel" shape or make your initials or just make worms, which is pretty much what we did. Press any "joints" firmly as they are likely to come undone in the water otherwise.

With the kids watching, drop it into the boiling water for 30 seconds then fish it out and place it on the greased sheet pan. Sprinkle with kosher salt while wet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. They are extra yummy with cashew butter or whatever nut butter you have on hand.

2 comments:

  1. Oooh ... the worm pretzels are the best. So, do you have a way to prevent them from being as hard as rocks after a few hours? Ours end up being tooth-shattering hard.

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  2. They are still pretty soft. I popped them into the toaster oven today and they were fine. I will say, the original recipe called for 5 cups of flour, but I couldn't for the life of me get it mixed in with my rinky dink mixer and my wimpy little paws, so maybe a half cup less flour helps?

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