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.

Pumpkin and Sunflower Seed- loaf 2

Well this proved to be an interesting loaf... I've made this one before several times, but when I went to make it for my weekly challenge, something didn't come out quite right.  I don't get it normally, this is a great recipe. I suspect I might need a different type of yeast, as I've changed to my bulk jar off brand kind from the farmer's market instead of the packets I had laying around.


Oh course this happens on the week where I'm not just making 1 loaf, I'm making 3. I intended to have 10 hungry women to feed on Friday, and had planned on turky sandwiches on fresh homemade bread. Unfortunatly the ice in Atlanta had different ideas, so now I need those three loafs... for next week. At least I hadn't bought the lunch meat yet.


Here's the recipe for a normally pretty tasty loaf, that was only moderately tasty this time.

Pumpkin and Sunflower Seed Loaf


1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tbsp. liquid honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)
1/8 cup of sunflower seeds without hulls
2 tsp. (10 ml) quick-rise (instant) dry yeast


First all of the liquid ingredients go in the container. Pretty huh?

Honey can be messy to measure, but sugar content I'm told has great affect on bread so it is best ot measure it. If you have a recipe that uses both oil and honey, measure the oil first, and then in the same measurement spoon without rinsing, measure the honey. The honey then plops out without sticking to the spoon. I can usually get 2 tablespoons of honey out of the spoon easily per every one spoon of oil, so if you're using a recipe with a lot of honey, you could space out the oil inbetween spoonfulls.

Next come all the dry ingredients. I used more of a half and half with the wheat flour so the bread isn't as heavy. I've heard vital wheat gluten added can help make pure whole wheat bread less heavy, I may have to give that a try. The whole grains are healthier than the bleached flour.

After that it's time to start adding crunchy stuff. You can very the seeds to your liking. The you really can't start tasting the flax seed until you add it in very large amounts. Flax seed gives a nutty texture. You can purchase flax seed whole and grind it in your food processor. Unground flax seed passes through the body without the body absorbing the nutrients, so it's best to grind it.

Green pumpkin seeds or pepitas as they are called give nice bits of crunch to this bread. Pepitas are essentially hulled regular pumpkin seeds. I'm a big fan of sprinkling them on salads or adding them to trail mix for a yummy crunch. Also yummy on steamed vegtables in any recipee you'd add nuts to, and you can even make pesto aout of them subbing them for pine nuts. They have a lot of health benifits in moderation, including protecting men's bone strenth, anti-inflamatory for arthritus, and lowering cholestrol.

Lastly, make yourself a volcano for the yeast. Maybe it was the yeast, maybe it was that I tried to make the loaf on the delay setting, but something just didn't work out as well this time. The Friday loaf was much shorter and denser, take a look, same reciepe and machine. I've also got to figure out how to make loaf without lal the bumps on the top. Hrmmm...

So Wednesday night I baked a loaf, Thursday night I delayed a loaf until morning. Friday I got up, took it out, exclaimed so exclamatives that it didn't look as tasty as others I've made, and then decided that maybe it would be best of have some more Rosemary Loaf on hand. The boy courageously braved the icy driveway to pick more rosemary.... that was also covered in snow and ice, but still alive. Since when do we have snow that sticks around in Atlanta?

Shortly after the bread machine started cranking the Rosemary loaf, we canceled the meeting I needed 3 loaves for in the first place. So the boy and I ate fresh rosemary loaf when it came out for Linner (lunch/dinner) and the neighbors birds had a feast with the stubby loaf.

I give the pumpkin and sunflower seed loaf 3 loaves. It's normally good, I just don't know what happened. Anyone else have any ideas? Did yours come out good when you tried this recipe? Is it my yeast?