Pretzel Pizazz!

Ok I admit it.. It totally wasn't fair to tempt you with tasty homemade pretzel facts and history without giving you any other pretzel outlet. It just wasn't right of me. I know it doesn't make things any better, but the reason the tasty pretzels have not made their way onto my blog is that most of my week has been like this, but maybe not quite so cute.

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I did however, last weekend have a great time making and tasting pretzels with the boy, and our friend biscuit boy. Pretzels are a little more complicated than bread, but I am determined to see how far I can take this poor man's kitcheaide mixer idea.

Our cast of characters for the basic pretzel.

Oh look, it's the return of Lil'Milk. He always brightens my day.

The recipe which I found at The Fresh Loaf:

1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon malt powder or brown sugar
2-3 cups all-purpose unbleached or bread flour (I substituted wheat flour in for half of the regular flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm milk (approximately 110 degrees, which is 1 minute in my microwave) 

So the first thing to notice is that the milk is indeed suppose to be warm this time. Not tepid, like the french bread recipee, warm. So the milk took a little trip in the microwave for abut a minute. Weeeeeee, round and round it goes... but I digress. It might have helped that the sound of Wii Super Hula Hoop was coming from the other room as the boy and biscuit boy took turns.

I had all intentions of using this recipe as is for the first time around, but that didn't happen as I discovered I was also running low on regular non-bread flour. So I split it half wheat flour, half regular all purpose flour.

All the ingredients found there way into the bread machine, liquid first, and then dry. Of course don't' forget to make your yeast volcano. Set the machine to the dough setting, and while it mixes clean up that big ol'mess I know you just made.

I have to say I was more fascinating with watching what happens in the machine itself. Especially once I discovered you can lift the lid while the machine continues to cycle without interrupting it. Now this probably isn't the best idea to do during the rising time on the pretzels or bread, but is just fine to do while it's mixing. We hung out in our hang glider stood on the step stool and watched from above.

Let the machine take itself through the entire dough cycle. You should have a nice lovely risen chunk of dough by the time you're done. This recipe makes about 6 full sized pretzels, so divide your dough into 6 even doughballs.

 

 Now it's time to start rolling. Spray the clean counter with Pam. Lightly cover the surface in oil so the dough doesn't stick. If you roll the dough, and then let it rest for a minute, and then roll again you'll be able to stretch them in to nice long strips, go for about the width of a finger, preferably one of your skinner fingers. :)

Upon first roll:

 Upon second roll:

Now the fun begins! Begin shaping your ropes into a pretzel shape. Keep in mind as you shape that the pretzels will almost double in size, so leave lots of room in between the loops.

Bavarian pretzels are first boiled in a lye bath, which  gives them a nice shiny coating. You can get a similar effect without the lye. Take 2 tablespoons of baking soda and boil it in about 4 cups of water. Boil each pretzel in this bath for about 30 seconds.

So while I was doing this, I got this great idea. Pretzels and beer taste great together. I've eaten other things boiled in beer and they were very tasty. What would happen if I boiled a pretzel in beer and then baked it? I decided to try it out. I sacrificed a bottle of this.

What a happy looking pretzel!

Come on, you'd want to be that pretzel if the water wasn't boiling, and you know you weren't going to get eaten. If you were a pretzel, this would be the top shelf wouldn't it? Next came, the fun part! Getting with the toppings. I chose to try one of each of the following: Pepitas (green shelled pumpkin seeds), sunflower seeds, coarse ground salt, cinnamon and splenda that I mixed equal parts in a bowl and spread on top,  sesame, and the beer boiled I left the top plain.

The oven preheated to 425, I baked them for 15 minutes. They came out delicious looking! By this point biscuit boy and the boy were hovering waiting for pretzels. I made them wait while I took a photo.

See the sad little pretzel in the center? The one that looks kinda naked compared to it's brown, crusty, delicious looking friends? That would be the beer boiled pretzel friends. It had the smell of beer, but overall it was the least favorite of the batch. Sadness, next time I'll just drink the beer.

Sesame and sunflower were both tasty, as was the salt. By far the favorites were the cinnamon sugar, and the pepitas. The pepitas roasted nicely on top and gave a nice nutty flavor. the cinnamon sugar, well it speaks for itself. These pretzels went under great scrutiny, as the boy, biscuit boy and I all gathered around a table and enjoyed all of them bite by bite!

Don't worry, even though I haven't blogged quite yet about the bread I made this week I did make some. In fact, the lonely over-ripe bananas may have found their way into my bread machine.

A Short History of the Pretzel

So one of the first things I've been dying to try in my poor man's kitchenaide is soft pretzels.

Pretzels have a long and interesting history.Though no one is quite sure how they originally started making them, they can be traced back to a monastery in Northern France/ Southern Italy where monks used scraps of dough to represent a child's arms folded in prayer. The 3 holes represented the trinity. The monks offered the warm, doughy bribe to children who had memorized their Bible verses and prayers. The monks called it a Pretiola, Latin for little reward. From there, the pretzel transformed into the Italian word, Brachiola, which means little arms.

Pretzels later worked themselves into medieval culture as a quick snack from a vendor. They came to represent good luck, prosperity, and became somewhat of a logo for fairs and festivals.

A legend exists of a young apprentice baker who fell asleep while the pretzels were baking. Woken up to the bellowing from his teacher at ruining them, the young baker tried them. They were crispier, nuttier, and even preserved longer. Fortunately for him the baker ended up loving them, and thus the hard pretzel was born.

Paintings have even helped us identify pretzels. Check out this reference from The Kitchen Project.  Click on the photo, and then zoom in on your browser of this painting. The painting is by Pieter Bruegel in 1559, and is called "The Fight Between Carnival and Lent." If you zoom in on the lower right corner, you'll find pretzels!

Pretzels have been used at weddings for a long time in Europe as sort of a wishbone. The spouse with the larger half assured their wishes would be fulfilled, and it became a symbol of prosperity. From this the now common phrase "tying the knot" originated.

German's have quite an intricate history with the pretzel.  Pretzels traveled from Europe and quickly adopted the chewy treat. Pretzels began showing up as dinner with two hard-boiled eggs on Good Friday, the day of fasting. the pretzel represented everlasting life, the eggs representing rebirth. Eventually parents began hiding them on Easter morning for their children to find, which led to to the tradition of the Easter Egg hunt.

The German Bavarian pretzel originated by accident as well. A Munich baker named Anton Nepomuk Pfannenbrenner is said to be an employee of a small business that made sweet pretzels. On February 11, 1839 mistook a soda/lye solution for the syrup normally used to coat the pretzels. Amazingly, no one died and it was a delicious mistake! The Bavarian pretzel, with it's thicker brown chewier shiny crust was born!

Skip ahead a little, and pretzels first came to the states with the colonists. Pretzels were first made in the homes. The first commercial pretzel is said to have been made in Lititz, just outside Pennsylvania Dutch country. Their was even a museum there at one point, but sadly it is closed now. Too bad to, I'd love to add it to my list of museums I've visited. Guess the salt and pepper shaker museum will continue to remain top of my list of strange museums for now....

A few other pretzel fun facts....

*Pretzels top some Christmas trees in Austria.

*Some Germans wear pretzels around their neck at new years for good luck.

*Pretzels without salt are called baldies.

*National Soft Pretzel Month is in April.... they have a month for everything now a days ehh?

*Helen Hoff is the world champion pretzel twister, twisting 52 per minute. Wow, that's pretty quick!

*Freepoint, Illinois High School has the pretzel as their mascot. Apparently the town had two major industries, beer and pretzels. Glad they chose the pretzel as the mascot! Go Pretzels!

I had all intentions of making this part of my post about pretzel making, but I didn't realize the long and intricate history of pretzels! Pretzel recipe and pictures to follow on the next edition of the Urbanbreadmachine...

Have a pretzel fun fact? Found another painting with pretzels in it? Have a personal pretzel story? Leave a comment!