Friday, April 10, 2009

Homemade Pretzels


We made homemade pretzels today. This is the first time I've made them.
I used this recipe:
1 1/3 water
2 T. butter
1 1/2T. sugar
3/4 t. salt
4 c. flour
2 1/2 t. yeast

I put the ingredients in my bread machine on dough cycle. I was going to use this recipe, but I really wanted to use my bread machine.

I let Bethany and Trenton help roll the dough and shape them into pretzels. We have some interesting looking pretzels, just to say.


Now they are rising and then this is what I'm supposed to do:
In a cast iron or other nonaluminum pan, bring water and baking soda (1 1/2 teas.) almost to a boil. Gently lower (by hand or slotted spoon) pretzels into water for about 1 minute, turning once. Do not let water come to a full boil. Remove pretzels and return to greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt or Kosher salt. Bake in a preheated 475 degree oven for about 12 minutes.

Edited recipe: I had to add more water than the 1 1/3 cups. I just added it slowly as my bread machine was mixing until the dough looked right.

4 comments:

  1. Please let us know if it works. Years ago I tried them, but I had so many problems with the boiling water part that after several tries, I gave up. If it works, do you have a trick for this step? I'd love to get them to work as we LOVE softdough pretzels.

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  2. They did work! The book I got the recipe out of said to make sure the water did NOT boil. I did mine in my cast iron skillet and made sure the water was about half way covering the pretzels. I really didn't think it was going to work--they seemed a bit slimy coming out of the water. But they went right back on the greased baking sheet, then into the oven. They are tasty! Try again with the water hot, but not boiling. :)

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  3. What a neat experience!

    Do you happen to know if honey can be substituted for the sugar? My daughter and I are both allergic to most processed sugars... Sigh.

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  4. Birdie,

    I'm not sure if you could substitute honey for sugar...but I would definitely try it. You may want to lower the amount of liquid to account for the honey. It would be worth trying. :)

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