Pretzels

Just made some pretzels and beer cheese. As uncultured as it may sound, I wish I used Velveeta because the texture was all wrong. Pretzels were delicious though. Used a little dme and it added some nice flavor. Can you tell the ones my 3 year old made?

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Soda water boil? Those look much better than my last attempt.

Yeah about 1/4 cup baking soda and a small amount of sugar. I was quite pleased as it was my first shot at pretzels. Made many different breads before but not pretzels.

I did a mess of pretzels last year for a church ‘Junetoberfest’. It was surprisingly difficult to get the twists to stay together during the 30 second baking soda boil. I eventually got the hang of it, but messed up several dozen figuring it out.
Yours look good! I think I might just have to do a batch this weekend.

My daughter’s donut shaped ones fell apart a bit. Her “necklace” one definitely didn’t make it. Ib think I boiled them about 15 seconds too long and that softened up the seam. The comment section gave a tip to use the amount of flour specified, no more, to prevent the dough from not sticking together. Thank god for people going first.

Anyone care to share their recipes? :yum:

YEAST
1 pkg yeast
Dash salt
2T Dme
1 C warm water

PRETZELS
1C (128g) bread flour
2C (256g) AP flour
2T softened butter

SODA SOLUTION
1/4 C (72g) baking soda or lye. Lye is better, higher pH
1.5T sugar

EGG WASH
1egg beaten
1t water

Mix up yeast solution.
Place flour in large bowl and cut in butter.
Mix yeast solution with flour. Mix with wooden spoon. Gather dough together and turn onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 5 minutes until no longer sticky. Let rise until double in size.
Cut into 12 equal pieces, roll into 18 inch rope. Form U shape and twist ends together,fold back on itself. Press the ends of the rope to seal. Place on oiled baking sheet, let rise 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 475
Bring soda solution to boil. Boil pretzels 20-30 seconds per side. Drain on wire rack. Place on oiled sheet, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 15 minutes

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Don’t forget to add some spent grains to that dough!

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Heckbyeah. Wish I would have had some. Need to get a brew day in. 44 here today so I would be just about perfect for brewing if it weren’t for the rain and gale force winds

This may sound silly but if u bake the baking soda at 250 for 25-30 minutes it will help give the pretzels that great brown color. I usually just spread desired amount on a cookie sheet and bake it. After reading this thread I may have to make pretzels for the Steelers game Sunday

You spelled Packers wrong. Silly autocorrect. But yeah heating the baking soda raises it’s pH to. Level closer to lye. Also if lye is used, don’t use metal

Man, now you guys are using lye, which should be saved for lutefisk, on pretzels… It never ceases to amaze me!! :blush: Sneezles61

Mmmm… lutefisk… it must be a Lake Superior thing.

Lutefisk, pretzels, and soap.

I think more of the cold weather scand-a-hoovin’ thing! Nothing kicks off hard water fishing like a lutefisk pot luck meal about Christmas time! Sneezles61

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As a transplant to the upper midwest, you guys are crazy. We had a pleasant holiday a few years back with a gaggle of Norwegian gals. They validated my opinion by affirming nobody over there eats “old style peasant food” anymore.

We have none of those here… it’s just cold.

Pleasant holidays or Norwegian girls? The first can be fixed easily with bourbon :wink:

Given enough, I think it could take care of both of those.

Well maybe not. After all, it’s the cause and solution of most of life’s problems. :laughing:

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Lol auto correct is a pita! Should be some darn good games Sunday though!

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