Pile 'o (Homemade) Pretzels

Y-U-M.

Today's experimental make-your-own snack of the day is pretzels. I looked at quite a few recipes on the internet and went with this one, although I did tweak it a bit by adding some whole wheat flour to make it a little healthier. My recipe is below.

Mixing the dough and letting it rise was easy (in fact, my gf Kelly has a recipe for bread machine pretzels which would be even less work but I couldn't find her recipe this moring before making the pretzels). More challenging - or, really, time consuming - was rolling out the pretzels. I think my rolling technique needs some work. About half way through I decided to 1/2 the dough balls (at that point I had divided the dough into 12 balls so these were 1/2 of that). This helped a lot - smaller pretzels but much easier to roll out. I never achived the "pencil" width that the recipe called for but at least with less dough to roll it was easier to get the dough thinner.

Regardless, the end result was fantastically delish. My 2yo said "oooh, perfect" when she saw them come out of the oven.

I added butter and salt after the pretzels were cooked. I'd imagine they would taste even better if you added that before cooking them. However, I am planning on freezing most of these for future eating and I wasn't sure if they would freeze well with butter and salt already on them. Next time I make them I will try buttering before cooking and compare the results.

Here is my tweaked recipe:

(starting in a kitchen aid mixer)

• 1/4 ounce or 1 package active dry yeast, dissolved in:
• 1 1/2 cups warm (105-115F) water

Let dissolve for 5 minutes and then add:

• 2 tb brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Stir to dissolve. Next add the flour, slowly:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 2 cups all purpose flour

Remove from mixer and knead by hand for 8 minutes (really, I set a timer. It is important to knead for a long time and if I don't set the time I severly overestimate how long I have been kneading for). You can also use the bread hook attachment for your mixer and do this step in there. I just love to knead dough.

Put in an oiled bowl and cover with a moist towel. Place in a warm location (about 75F) for one hour, or until doubled in size. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll...roll...roll...twist.

Now, this next step is important. Before placing on a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper did the pretzel in 2 tbs of baking soda dissolved in 2 cups of warm water. This allows the outside to brown nicely. Make sure there is not a lot of excess water on the pretzel and place on cookie sheet. Allow to rise another 15-20 minutes. Bake at 425 for 8 minutes. Add butter/salt/honey/cinnamon/whatever-your-heart-desires before or after baking. Enjoy!