I am a huge fan of soft pretzels. Hell, most Tuesday nights at midnight I even go on a bike ride through center city to get fresh hot soft pretzels. I am also a fan of Alton Brown. He had a show on soft pretzels so I Just had to try them.
Here is a link to the Alton Brown Recipe from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
- 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
- Vegetable oil for pan
- 10 cups water
- 2/3 cup baking soda
- 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
- Pretzel salt
It is such a simple recipe. Flour, water, yeast, butter, salt, and sugar. This time I added a twist, flax seed meal. Flax seed is supposedly very healthy for you, and I like the nutty flavor it adds to things. Seemed to be a good idea.
Using a stand mixer makes this recipe super easy. I like to mix the dough in the machine but I prefer to knead by hand as it is a great stress reliever.
Here is my dough in the mixer.
Letting the dough rise for 50 minutes.
Doubled in size.
After rising, I punch down the dough and break it into pieces. Alton suggests 8 pieces.
A cool thing about baking your own bread, you can put it in whatever shape you want. My friend Annamae wants an 'A' pretzel :D. I also wanted to try out a pretzel bun for my friend Jess. She wanted to know if I could make them.
The trick to getting a proper brown color on your pretzels is to toss them into a boiling solution of water and Baking Soda, also known as Sodium Bicarbonate. More traditional recipes call for lye, which has a pH of 13-14. The alkaline solution is what starts to break down the gluten in the dough and helps form a crispier brown crust during baking. But for those of us who don't want to mess with caustic materials, baking soda with its pH of 9 is sufficient.
Here is a pretzel in the boiling solution. 30 seconds should do it.
Place the pretzels on the baking sheet and in they go! 12-14 minutes.
And here they are, delicious Flax Meal Pretzels!
Matt made a cheese filled pretzel log, and it was my favorite of this batch. I will definitely make more of those next time.
Om nom nom so goood.
I like mine with spicy mustard :D. Enjoy! These turned out so well. I can't wait to make a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with the pretzel bun.
The flax meal does alter the flavor some, but in a good way. It made the pretzels more rustic. I recommend trying these!
