The Orange Strainer: Soft Pretzels

Recipe: Soft Pretzels

Source: Food Network Magazine

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/soft-pretzels.html

Time: 3 hours

Ease: 8

Taste: 8

Leftover Value: Good the next day, but not for much longer.

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!!

Move over Super Pretzel, homemade soft pretzels are here. These came at the request of my younger brother who wanted to have pretzels for dinner. Though I do love a good carbohydrate all by itself, I immediately knew that these pretzels would be served with burgers and hot dogs stuffed inside.

The ingredients for this recipe are so insanely basic that more than likely you already have all this on hand:

Butter
Dark brown sugar
Active dry yeast
Flour
Salt
Baking Soda

When cookbook authors talk about pantry "staples" these are the things I picture. Not items like dried lavender, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, or canned artichoke hearts. Believe it or not, there are some lists that actually include these things.

I found this recipe in the October 2013 Food Network Magazine, but was so happy for you that it is posted online. The only thing I like better about the magazine layout is that they numbered the steps and matched them with pictures of the process.

I can't number the steps for you, but here are the basic pictures of the process.

An hour of the pretzel time is spent waiting for the dough to rise, however, we all know that hour is never spent sitting around twiddling thumbs. I spent mine doing dishes and getting my hot dogs, hamburgers, and other sides ready.

After the dough has risen and been kneaded, divide it in half, and then divide each half into six equal sized pieces.

The recipe said to tape a 24-inch long string to the counter top to use as a guide for rolling the pretzels. I did this and found that the string absolutely refused to stay in place. If you place two pieces of masking tape 24-inches apart, there really is no need for string.

Shaping the pretzels was my favorite part of this recipe.

It was also the most time consuming part. The recipe makes 12 large pretzels.

Which means rolling, twisting, twisting, and folding back 12 pieces of dough--each with a mind of its own.

It worked out perfectly that these pretzels, while in the dough stage have the typical two pretzel 'holes', when left to rise ended up puffing out and filling the empty spaces....like buns.

Because, after all, that was part of their purpose in my life.

Waiting another 30 minutes for them to rise was probably the most painful part of this recipe. After already having to wait an hour for the dough to rise, 30 more minutes is torture. Especially when all I could do was think about biting into a salty, mustardy bite of soft pretzel.

Despite the amount of time these consume, can I just pause to say: how on earth can you top making your own fresh pretzels?

Perhaps by making your own homemade bread...without a bread machine. More on that to follow.

I gave these pretzels an 8 for difficulty because the length of time combined with the rolling and shaping, as well as the big finish coming up of boiling and baking.

After the pretzels sit for 30 minutes, they are then put into a boiling water bath for a total of 1 minute 30 seconds.

The recipe says to cut the wax paper the pretzels have been rising on up like so:

This makes it much easier to transport each pretzel to the boiling water. However, the recipe also suggests using tongs to pull the wax paper away--this is completely unnecessary. The wax paper pulled away easily using only my fingers. Why bother pulling out and dirtying a utensil if not necessary, right?

It's all about simplicity. As you can see, that's why I make things like pretzels that take three hours.*

*Hmmm....I think my priorities are a little confused.

The boiling water bath is the busiest time of the recipe, but also the most exhilarating because you are moments closer to eating fresh delicious soft pretzels.

After the bath, set the pretzels on baking sheets. You should be able to use the same sheets from before.

Here is where I made a mistake the first time I made these, however, I think it was one of those mistakes that made the recipe all the more better. In my haste to be enjoying the warm baked delight that is soft pretzels, I thought the pretzels were supposed to be brushed with butter before baking. Turns out it is supposed to be after baking. In my world, more butter means more happiness.

Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

They couldn't be more perfect. They were thick enough that I could slice them down the center and put either a hamburger or sliced hot dog in between.