Monday, June 11, 2012

Secret Recipe Club: Soft Pretzels


It's Secret Recipe Club time again, and June's assignment is Karen Cooks. Karen blogs from Montana and has all sorts of great recipes that we'd love to try, including chicken marsala, grilled pineapple guacamole, venison stew, and a really tasty looking cheesecake.

After reviewing Karen's recipe index, I knew exactly what we were going to make right away. Soft pretzels. We'd conquered bagels in a previous month, and it was time for the next baking challenge.

We only changed a couple of things out of necessity: we ran out of white flour, so we substituted in 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, and, and instead of Kosher salt, we substituted some lime-infused sea salt were were given as a gift for such a special occasion.

Forming the pretzels was fun as well. Our eldest son used the pretzels as an opportunity to shape them into numbers.

These pretzels are best served immediately and don't fare well as next-day offerings. That wasn't a problem for us - they were gone by the end of the evening.

Soft Pretzels

Dough
2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp yeast
3/4 to 1 cup warm water

Topping
1 cup warm water
4 tbsp baking soda
sea salt
3 tbsp butter, melted
  1. Prepare the topping (soda wash): in a small saucepan, combine 1 cup water and 4 tbsp baking soda and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve baking soda and let cool.
  2. Start the dough: place all ingredients for the dough in a stand-mixer bowl using a paddle attachment and mix on low. When a ball starts to form, switch to a dough hook and knead for 5 minutes or until dough is soft and smooth and no longer sticky.
  3. Put dough into a greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat oven to 500-degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick lining.
  5. Transfer dough to a pastry mat and divide into 8 pieces. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes.
  6. Roll each piece of dough into a long rope and shape into a pretzel (or numbers as we did). Dip each pretzel into the soda wash and place onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt, cover in plastic and let rest for 10 minutes.
  7. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes, until the pretzels are a golden brown (note: keep a close eye on them - ours were slightly over-done).
  8. After baking, immediately brush with melted butter and serve.
Recipes by the Haggis and the Herring: tasty world recipes tested in our kitchen
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14 comments:

  1. Great SRC choice! I've used this same recipe & it's fantastic!

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  2. these look great! I love the fact that this recipe has no dairy in the actual pretzel. Some recipes use warm milk and this recipe would be perfect for my milk allergy son. Great SRC choice. Hope you stop by and visit my big cookie in a cast iron pan post! :) http://itsyummytomytummy.blogspot.com/2012/06/colossal-cookie.html

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  3. I love soft pretzels and they really are easy to make at home. Great choice

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  4. I'm loving these pretzels! The lime-infused sea salt sounds like it must have been such a great addition. Great job!

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  5. What a fun recipe! I bet the lime-infused salt worked well. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Glad you enjoyed the pretzels! I wish they were better on Day 2 because they'd be awesome to make one day and take to a party the next, but the sure don't fare well. I'm like you though... they weren't but a few leftover!

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  7. Everytime i see soft pretzel posts I swear I'm going to make this-this time I'm serious! They look great.

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  8. I love soft pretzels and I can imagine that your lime infused salt made them extra yummy.

    If you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my group "A" SRC entry: Candied Popcorn.

    Lisa~~
    Cook Lisa Cook

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  9. That lime salt sounds amazing. Now I have a hankering for a soft pretzel! these look like they turned out fabulously!

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  10. YUM! I keep seeing recipes for donuts...I really need to make them

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  11. This is one thing I have never tried to make. It looks like fun especially when your kids join in.

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  12. Earlier bagels, now this! Guys this is great stuff!

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  13. OOh this looks like a fun recipe to do with my kiddos!

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