Homemade Pretzels

For a fun weekend project we decided to try making homemade soft pretzels. I have been so inspired by food blogs like Smitten Kitchen and East Village Kitchen lately. I always have several recipes I'm waiting to try, but lately my head is swirling with recipes for pastries, breads, appetizers, and everything else that I'm tempted to arrange my life around my cooking schedule. I don't think my little kitchen holds a candle to theirs, but I'm working my way up! The biggest difference is that we're trying to incorporate the foods we grow into our cooking. I take so much pride in cooking with the vegetables and herbs grown in our backyard.

This recipe, however, is so simple. There are several steps and it is a little time consuming, but it was an afternoon well spent. We're the rare couple who enjoys cooking together more than cooking alone and we even manage to work well as a team.

This recipe is inspired by this one.

Mixing the dough - just flour, yeast, water, and salt. It starts out like any other bread.


Kneading the dough a few times before letting it rest and rise.




Punching down the dough after doubling time of about an hour.



Rolling out the 18 portions into 18" long strips. This is when the digital food scale came in handy - making sure that each portion was equal in weight so that the final products would be the same size and cook at the same speed.



Twisting our them into the pretzel shape. I actually really liked the rolling and shaping - it was so fun!



Our pretzels resting again before their bath.



More pretzels. Note the heart shaped pretzel Nate made for me! ::swoon::


We neglected to take a picture of the pretzel bath because it all happens so fast. Basically, pretzels are separated from any other bread because before they are popped into the oven you dunk them for about a minute in simmering water with baking soda and sugar added. It cooks them a little then they finish in the oven. The ones we were able to sprinkle with some leftover pretzel salt were definitely the best. The course granules are really needed for these little guys!




We added a good honey mustard (Bolthouse Farms brand) and some peach slices and called this a meal. I highly doubt this will be the last time we make these twisty guys!