ANYWAY- digression and obsession with past meals aside, I made these pretzels a week or two ago, and forgot to share! The recipe comes from my friend Emily, a fellow chef who is much more adventurous than I am. Every time she makes these, they are gone in half a second (seriously, before you can blink). She gave me some tips, which I am passing along as well. Also, surprisingly enough, this is a really healthy recipe- great for snacking and guilt free!
Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels
Adapted from "Steph Chows"
Ingredients:
1 tsp active dry yeast (this is less than a packet of yeast, so if you don't have a jar of yeast like I do, check the packet information)
Pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup bread flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp splenda blend (2 Tbs white sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt or whatever other toppings you want
1 tbsp canola oil (I didn't have canola oil, so I used olive oil instead. It turned out well, but I think canola oil is the healthiest in the oil family)
1. Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes until the mixture is creamy colored. Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (this will take only a few minutes, not even 5).
Emily's tip: the dough will be a little dry this way, so you can dissolve the yeast in a little more than 1/3 cup of water, and you can let the oil overflow the tbs measurement a little.
2. Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour (my apartment is cold, so it took a little longer than this. I left it for a couple of hours while I did some studying, which worked out fine! You still won't have a ton of dough, so don't be scared if it doesn't look that big).
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times. Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.
4. Dissolve baking soda into hot water and stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all the pretzels with sea salt, to your preference. Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned. (You can try baking them for 8 minutes and then dropping the temperature to 350 for an additional 4-5 minutes for better browning).
5. Emily's tip: to make them even more delicious but less healthy, brush them with melted butter once they've come out of the oven! I did this, and I didn't regret it for a second.
Serve with this honey mustard sauce, and it. is. AWESOME.
Honey Mustard Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper
1. Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper (this is obviously optional- I skipped it and didn't find it lacking at all!). The sauce can be held in the refrigerator for 1 week.
Note: for storage purposes, bread can be a little funny. DO NOT refrigerate these, and DO NOT store them in an air tight container. They'll get moist and gross and you don't want that. I wrapped them in foil and left them on the counter, and it was fine. If you are worried about Sparky getting into them though... eat them in one sitting.
No comments:
Post a Comment