HOMEMADE PRETZELS

PHOTOS BY SERENA ELLISON

Jemmie Fay Stone submitted this recipe for Pretzel BREAD where at the end of the recipe you shape it into a loaf and put a big X and bake..comes out soft and chewy for sandwiches…… but I wanted to use it to make pretzels, it was quite an adventure.. cause in the middle of making it last night my power went out due to a snow storm.. so I couldn’t bring myself to throw out the dough so I went on with the shaping of the pretzels and put them in a dish with wax paper in between and glad wrap on top and put in the fridge …. this morning my power came back on so I decided to finish the recipe and see if they would turn out.. they did… I think I could have baked them 5 minutes less….

Pretzels 

Ingredients:

1 cup hot water
1 pkg. Active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
2 Tbsp. half/half or heavy cream at room temp
1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. Melted butter

4 quarts boiling water
1/3 cup baking soda 

3 Tbsp. Salted butter
1 tsp. Kosher salt
2 1/2 – 3 cup flour

Salt to taste

Directions:
Add yeast, water, milk, brown sugar, and butter together in a large bowl.

Whisk ingredients until combined. Set aside to rest 10 minutes, until frothy.

In Large Bowl Mix in kosher salt and 2 1/2 cups of flour

mix in your yeast mixture with wooden spoon till forms a ball

cans sprinkle  more flour  as needed until desired dough consistency is reached. Dough should be tacky, yet firm.

Cover bread with a warm damp towel in bowl for 30 minutes.

 

Knead dough by hand or machine for 5-10 minutes until dough is shiny and elastic.

Place dough back in bowl and recover with warm damp towel for 1 hour. (okay this is the part where everything sort of went crazy .. my power started to go on.. and off.. on and off.. and I knew the snow storm was causing it and soon I would have no power.. so I microwaved some damp towels and placed over my bowl to speed up the raising process..

I didn’t quite make it.. the power went off for good…. I decided to go ahead and form the pretzels by candle light..lightly flour your board

Roll out your dough into rectangle and cut into strips with pizza cutter

so now you take a strip and roll out to 24 inches long or however big you want  your pretzel I did all sizes..

I found the fatter ones were the chewiest but not the prettiest… go figure.. any way.. roll out your rod and make a U shape.. then cross each side over and do a twist in the middle ONE time.. and bring ends down on opposite sides.. very easy..

Fat ones taste the best in my opinion

skinny ones are more crisp

NOW at this point if I had power I would have went to the next step.. the baking soda step but NO I couldn’t so I layered my pretzels carefully in a large 9×13 with wax paper in between each and Glad Wrap on top tightly.. put into my fridge even though it also had no power

NEXT DAY.. Got power so here we go

Pre-heat over to 450 degrees F. Pour 4 quarts of water in large pan and boil on stove or put in oven till boiling….

take out when boiling and  slowly add baking soda. (make sure to add in slowly as dumping it all in at once will cause a volcano-like effect that results in lots of clean up)

 

Lower Pretzels into the water solution (I used a basket)  and boil on each side for 15 seconds. Do not leave them longer than 30 seconds total in the solution. Carefully drain off excess water by placing on wire rack to drain over towel

and place on oiled baking sheet  take one egg yolk and mix 1 tbsp water brush onto pretzels and sprinkle with chunky sea salt

change oven to 400 degrees and Bake at 400 degrees and bake for 22 minutes ( I say cut down your baking time to 16 minutes)  Once removed, immediately brush  or spray with melted butter to ensure a soft crust.

serve with mustard or pizza sauce