Ich bin eine brezel
I am revisiting foods that I used to make all the time but have recently disappeared into the void. So today, as a precursor to my trip to Germany, I made good ol' fashioned soft pretzels. There are lots of recipes for these but they are all pretty similar.
Dissolve a package of yeast, the Active kind, in 1 cup of warm water. Let sit for a while until all puffy and bubbly.
Then mix in 1 and a half cups of flour, 2 Tb of canola oil and 1 Tb sugar (I used sucanat). Mix it up for a few minutes.
Then add another cup and a half of flour. Form your dough, knead it for about 5 minutes.
Make a cute little ball out of the dough and let it sit in a big greased bowl for an hour or so. The dough should double in size.
I love this part! PUNCH IT! yes! Knead it a little more on a floured surface and then separate into pieces. I like big pretzels so I made 9 individual balls, but you can easily make 12 and probably do 6 giant monster pretzels too.
Roll each ball into long thin ropes and then form the pretzel shape by making a U and then cross the two tops of the U over eachother and then down to the bottom middle of the U. Does that make sense? I think so.
Let them sit and rise for a bit longer, until your oven preheats to 425F. At this point you should also bring a huge pot of water to a boil and have baking soda handy (little less than half a cup).
When the water boils, throw in some of the baking soda. Place one pretzel in at a time, 15 seconds on each side. Gradually add the rest of the baking soda as you boil more pretzels.
Place the pretzels, when they have been properly boiled, on a greased cookie sheet. Brush each with melted earth balance (yum!) and apply toppings. Here is where it gets fun!
I put coarse sea salt on all of the pretzels, then put poppy seeds on a few, and then sugar coated jalapenos on the rest.
To make this topping, chop up a half a cup of jalapenos, throw in a pan and cook for a few minutes. Then add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 Tb of water. Let all the liquid cook off and when the syrup forms set aside and let cool.
I always like to make a couple Deluxe pretzels by drowning them in all of the toppings. CRAZY!
Other fun toppings:
Herbs! Rosemary and Dill go great!
Chopped nuts!
Black and White Sesame Seeds
Garlic and Onion
Cinnamon Sugar
The possibilities are really endless.
Bake for 10 minutes and voila! Beautious!
I can't wait for Berlin!
jp
Dissolve a package of yeast, the Active kind, in 1 cup of warm water. Let sit for a while until all puffy and bubbly.
Then mix in 1 and a half cups of flour, 2 Tb of canola oil and 1 Tb sugar (I used sucanat). Mix it up for a few minutes.
Then add another cup and a half of flour. Form your dough, knead it for about 5 minutes.
Make a cute little ball out of the dough and let it sit in a big greased bowl for an hour or so. The dough should double in size.
I love this part! PUNCH IT! yes! Knead it a little more on a floured surface and then separate into pieces. I like big pretzels so I made 9 individual balls, but you can easily make 12 and probably do 6 giant monster pretzels too.
Roll each ball into long thin ropes and then form the pretzel shape by making a U and then cross the two tops of the U over eachother and then down to the bottom middle of the U. Does that make sense? I think so.
Let them sit and rise for a bit longer, until your oven preheats to 425F. At this point you should also bring a huge pot of water to a boil and have baking soda handy (little less than half a cup).
When the water boils, throw in some of the baking soda. Place one pretzel in at a time, 15 seconds on each side. Gradually add the rest of the baking soda as you boil more pretzels.
Place the pretzels, when they have been properly boiled, on a greased cookie sheet. Brush each with melted earth balance (yum!) and apply toppings. Here is where it gets fun!
I put coarse sea salt on all of the pretzels, then put poppy seeds on a few, and then sugar coated jalapenos on the rest.
To make this topping, chop up a half a cup of jalapenos, throw in a pan and cook for a few minutes. Then add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 Tb of water. Let all the liquid cook off and when the syrup forms set aside and let cool.
I always like to make a couple Deluxe pretzels by drowning them in all of the toppings. CRAZY!
Other fun toppings:
Herbs! Rosemary and Dill go great!
Chopped nuts!
Black and White Sesame Seeds
Garlic and Onion
Cinnamon Sugar
The possibilities are really endless.
Bake for 10 minutes and voila! Beautious!
I can't wait for Berlin!
jp
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