Better Than Those Mall Things They Call Pretzels...

Wow, those last few posts were awfully depressing! I have been riding on an emotional roller coaster as of late, but those days are over...well, okay, at least for today. I will try not to post anymore depressing gibberish.

Anywho...I digress. The other day, I baked the most delicious and addictive pretzels EVER! I had never made pretzels before and I was actually very intimidated by even t
he thought of doing it. I decided that I was going to at least attempt it and stop being a scardy pants. I was reading a homesteading magazine called, GRIT. I love this magazine! It has so much great information and the recipes are awesome!

It just so happens that I ran across this recipe for homemade pretzels and decided on
a whim to make them. No really, it really was on a whim!

It's a simple recipe and the whole thing takes only about two hours to complete from start to finish...even could be less.

Start by mixing and kneading the dough as the directions say to do. The dough turns out very smooth and light.

When the dough is done being kneaded and risen, put it on a lightly floured surface and divide it up into 8 or more evenly sized pieces.

Shape into your pretzel shapes...or however you'd like to shape them...because really, does it matter? You could do tiny pretzel bites if you would like. I'm going to try that next.

After the shaping, you should have your water bath boiling already, you put your pretzels in the boiling water and leave them for about 3 minutes or so.

Put them on the parchment lined baking sheet and coat them with your egg wash and sprinkle on your salt.

Bake them for about 20-25 minutes until they're nice and golden brown.

These will not last long! They're that good. My family devoured them in less time than it takes to put a full meal on their dinner plates. We hadn't even blessed the food yet. Silly kids! Me? Noooo...okay, yeah me too!

Soft Pretzels

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 1/2 tps active dry yeast
1 TBSP Sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP salt
1 egg
Coarse or kosher salt

Water Bath

1 Gallon water
1 TBSP baking soda

1. In a large bowl, mix together warm water, yeast and sugar; let sit for 5 minutes, or until foamy.

2. In separate bowl, combine flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture and mix until it comes together. Use your hands to combine into a ball. On lightly floured work surface, knead dough for a few minutes until a smooth, sticky dough forms.

3. Place dough in a large oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 45 minutes.

4. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long rope, 18-20 inches long. (Don't over-flour your hands or the work surface as this will make the pieces more difficult to roll.) Twist each piece into a pretzel shape by placing the arc of the pretzel at the bottom (closest to you). Round the two ends so they're facing the arc and twist them around; "paste" them to the opposite sides of the arc, using a little water, if necessary. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

5. Prepare water bath. Once boiling, use slotted spatula to transfer each pretzel into water and let boil for 3 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Drain on a cooling rack, then transfer parboiled pretzels back to parchment-lined baking sheet.

6. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brush egg wash (beat egg with 1 T water) generously over each pretzel and sprinkle with coarse or kosher salt.

7. Bake for 25 minutes.

*From the publishers of mother earth news. GRIT Country Skills Series. Volume 5. Page 68.

Enjoy your delicious pretzels!