Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Rainy Day Activity - Making Pretzels from scratch

 Pretzels from scratch....



Every made pretzels from scratch?  I did it once before for a wicked Halloween party my last boss threw....they came out great....I shaped the dough into long witches fingers, painted an almond red with food colouring then added dried rosemary for the knuckles (wish I had a pic to show you).

But I have never made the big typical pretzels....it's actually very easy especially with a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook.

We used Alton Brown's recipe from the food network Pretzel Recipe


First you let the water, sugar, salt and dried yeast sit in a bowl for 5 mins. 
Not too hard right?





Then you add the melted butter and flour and turn on the machine to mix it. 
Nothing too taxing yet right?




After 5 mins of beating it will look like this.  Magic!



Put it to rise in a warm place, I put mine in the oven on the lowest setting I think it was 80 degrees F until it doubled in size.  We were so excited about getting to play with it I forgot to take a pic, but I'm sure you can use your imagination.


It took us a while to get used to making the pretzel shapes, I found it easier just to make a long rope and twist it.  And I'm thinking at this point I should have added cheese to the dough!!!!  YUMO!



Another process I forgot to take a pic of (in my defense I was cooking dinner at the same time) was the dunking them in boiling water and baking soda for 30 seconds procedure....quite fun really but you need a watch or timer with seconds on because 30 seconds passes very fast!

A little egg and water wash and then bake them in the over for 15 mins.


Aren't they beautiful?  Lovely golden brown.  They were quite bready.....I think if I had left them in a few shades darker they would have been better.



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