Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Food "Addiction": Soft Pretzels

There are many different foods that I just LOVE - chocolate, fresh vegetables, breads, rolls, cookies, etc. One of my absolute favorite foods is soft pretzels. I love them so much that they were even a craving of mine during my pregnancy with Miss E. It is probably a very good thing that the closest soft pretzel place is over 40 minutes from our house or I would have easily put on more weight than I did. Anyway, I happened to be at the mall the other day (by myself) and decided to get a soft pretzel, which got me to thinking that I needed to put together a list of soft pretzel recipes.
  • Alton Brown's Homemade Soft Pretzels - one of my favorite food network chefs and his take on homemade soft pretzels (German style). **I tried this one today (4/26/11) and it was pretty good, though not exactly the way I like them. They were slightly crunchy on the outside and very soft and chewy on the inside if that's the way you like them.
    A Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel using Alton's recipe.
  • Gluten-Free Soft Pretzels - I am very glad that I do not have a gluten allergy but know a few people who do.
  • Aunties Delicious Soft Pretzels (Amish recipe)
  • Homemade Soft Pretzels - this recipe calls for just baking, no baking soda dip.
  • Easy Soft Pretzels - this recipe uses store-bought breadstick dough to make the pretzels. With as busy as life seems, I'm always looking for "quick fix" ideas.
  • Buttery Soft Pretzels - this calls for more yeast than the other recipes so I'm assuming it will be a little more fluffy. It is very highly rated and saved/reviewed by over 1,000 people. Looking forward to trying this recipe. Several of the reviewers mentioned that they used less flour than the recipe calls for. Many also substituted butter for the vegetable oil (one even used coconut oil).
I tried one of the recipes with the kids today as it is raining outside. Here are some pictures from the activity.
Miss E. adding the sugar to the water.
Mr. R. adding the yeast to the water and sugar.
"Kneading" the dough.
Pretzel dough rising...

...53 minutes later.

Miss E. trying to roll out the dough.
Mr. R. doing a really good job at rolling his dough out.
5 formed, 3 to go.
Boiling in baking soda and water solution.
    Baked, brushed with butter, dusted with cinnamon & sugar...

    and ready to eat.

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