Homemade Soft Pretzels

Don't run away, these are much easier than you think! 

I'm no stranger to making yeast doughs, whether it's for cinnamon rolls, bread, pizza dough, even doughnuts, but for some reason I had never tried soft pretzels. I'm not really sure why - I love them, whether they're savory or sweet and could probably eat three large ones in one sitting . . . With these I limited myself to two, but still that's a lot! I think what might have discouraged me was that after you form the pretzels, you have to boil them with baking soda before baking. Not that it's difficult, but it's an extra step.

Now that I've made them once, I will definitely be making them again. If you're worried this will be too difficult, please just try it - the dough is a dream to work with. It wasn't a sticky mess in the least - it was soft, stretchy, and easily pliable and yielded chewy, tender, delicious-beyond-words soft pretzels. 

I set up a little buffet for my husband and myself so we could try making our favorites from Pretzelmaker (Parmesan with Pizza Sauce, Buttered with Cheese Sauce, and Cinnamon-sugar with Vanilla Glaze). I'll include the recipe for the cheese sauce and vanilla glaze. Otherwise I just brushed butter on the pretzels and either left them like that, dipped them in parmesan, or sprinkled them with cinnamon-sugar. I used store-bought pizza sauce but if you have a recipe you love, go for it!

All three variations were unbelievable; so unbelievable that I couldn't pick a favorite. I just kept cycling back through each of them and eating more and more and MORE!

Homemade Soft Pretzels (original recipe can be found here)

1 1/2 c. warm water

2 Tbls. light brown sugar

1 pkg. dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

3 ounces butter, melted

2 1/2 tsp. sea salt

4 1/2-5 c. flour

3 quarts water

2/3 c. baking soda

1 egg beaten with 1 Tbls. water (called egg wash)

Coarse sea salt or kosher salt, if desired

1. Combine water, sugar, butter, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with hook attachment. Let sit 5 minutes (otherwise mix by hand if you don't have a mixer).

2. Add salt and 4 1/2 c. flour and turn mixer on med-low to knead bread approximately 3-4 minutes, or until dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If it looks too wet, add additional flour a little at a time. (Can knead by hand, but allow 10-15 minutes for dough to come together while kneading).

3. Place dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place until double in size - about 1 hour.

4. Bring water to a boil. and preheat oven to 425. Grease two large baking sheets and set aside.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long rope. To shape into pretzels, take the right side and cross over to the left. Cross right to left again and flip up. Slowly add the baking soda to the boiling water. Boil the pretzels in the water solution, 2 at a time for 30 seconds, splashing the tops with the warmed water using a spoon. Remove with a large flat slotted spatula or a spider. 

6. Place 4 pretzels on each baking sheet, brush the tops with the egg wash and season liberally with sea salt (you can skip the salt if you want - I don't like it on mine so I left it off). Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until pretzels are golden brown.

Cheese Sauce (original can be found here)

2 Tbls. butter

2 Tbls. flour

1 c. milk

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

salt and pepper, to taste

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over med. heat. 

2. Stir in flour and continue to cook about 1 minute.

3. Slowly whisk in the milk a little at a time to avoid lumps.

4. Mix in cheese slowly until completely melted and smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Vanilla Glaze

1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 Tbls. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1. Mix all ingredients together, adding more milk or powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want.

 Next time I would roll my ropes thinner - my pretzels ended up a tad chubby. :) And see how they look ugly after they've been boiled? Don't worry about that . . . 

 Look at those beauties! Who would've thought they resembled bumpy, ugly globs of roughly shaped dough before they were baked?

Have you ever worked with yeast dough? If not, what's holding you back? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Hugs and cookies,

Amanda

A Salty Sweet Treat to End Your Week

I was introduced to the website Pinterest not too long ago, and now I'm totally hooked! On the website you create "boards" that basically serve as places to keep all those things you find on the internet, but aren't sure how to remember them . . . That's why our "Favorites" bar is full of recipes I want to try - I think it's kind of annoying for Dusty to filter through them all to find the few he's put there. :) So now when I find a recipe, craft idea, new workout, DIY project, cute outfit - or ANYthing, I can "pin it" to one of my boards. The other cool thing is that you can see what everyone else is "pinning," too. And that, my friends, is where I found this recipe. A chocolate chip cookie dough base with pretzels, PB chips, and milk chocolate chips . . . they were really yummy! The original recipe can be found here, but since she said her cookies didn't spread much, I decided to use a different base.

Pretzel Cookies with Chocolate and PB Chips
1/2 c. melted butter
1/2 c. softened butter
1 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 c. flour
1 c. roughly chopped pretzels

1 c. PB chips

1 1/2 - 2 c. milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Beat melted and softened butter to combine, then add sugars and beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add vanilla, eggs, soda, and salt, and beat another 2-3 minutes.
4. Stir in flour until almost combined, then with mixer running, pour in pretzels and both chips until just combined.
5. Drop dough by tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until light golden brown. Allow to cool, and enjoy!
The pretzels stay surprising crunchy in the cookies for a couple days, and it's a nice change from regular chocolate chip cookies. The dough is also highly addictive, so beware! I'm not suggesting you eat it, with the raw eggs and all, but I can't ever help myself . . . I think pregnancy has been the hardest 18-20 months of my life since I couldn't eat the dough and make cookies out of it. ;) If you're looking for a safe alternative, just substitute about 1/2 c. of milk for the eggs and have at it!

Highly addictive - I'm warning you again!

You can see mine are a little underdone in the middles, but that's
how I like them - leave yours in a few minutes longer if you don't.

Deliciousness.

On a Side Note: IT'S OFFICIALLY DECEMBER!!! The Christmas season is upon us, and I love  it! We picked out our Christmas tree yesterday and are picking it up on Saturday - Asher is soooo excited. He loves Christmas trees, and we can't wait to decorate it with him. Aiden (aka Mr. Mischief) is a different story . . . we'll see how he does with it - we might not be able to have any lights or decorations on the bottom foot of the tree. :) I'll try to post some pics after it's all done!