Every so often I have a weird desire to bake bread or a bread-related snack. I just love the way the house smells and it's the perfect activity to entertain myself for an afternoon. It's 3:30, I have to be somewhere at 5 and I haven't touched my hair or makeup. That gives you an idea of what kind of Sunday afternoon it is.
Anyway, the lack of motivation to get myself ready aside, I thought I'd attempt to make soft pretzels. I've made them before but I didn't remember them turning out very well. Anyway, I just found a recipe on Pinterest and I added rosemary to the dough (because I love it and we have a rosemary Christmas tree, which will likely look worse than Charlie Brown's tree by the time Xmas comes around because I will have used it so much). I also did fine without a dough hook as we don't have a stand mixer. If you don't have one, just use your hands to make sure everything's well combined, then knead for a few minutes until it makes a nice, well-combined, non-sticky ball.
A quick tip: If you aren't planning on serving these IMMEDIATELY, throw them in the freezer RIGHT AWAY after they're cooled. I can't stress this enough, people. If you leave these out for even 24 hours, they will lose their fresh-baked appeal and just be lame, non-exciting soft pretzels. When you want to eat one, throw it in the toaster oven or regular oven for about 5-10 minutes @ 350 and they'll be as good as new again!
This is from a blog I found called
The Novice Chef.
One thing to note as well is that if you aren't planning on eating all of these the same day, throw them in the freezer as soon as possible after they cool. This will help them stay fresh. When you want to eat one, just pop in the oven for a few minutes and it will be like they were just baked!
What you'll need:
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
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
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
What to do:
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
This is what the yeast looks like when it starts to work. It looks like it foams to the top. If it doesn't do this, your yeast might not be active and you might not end up with delicious, fluffy dough.
Dough should double in size.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
