Home-Made Pretzels Recipe
Home-Made Pretzels Recipe
I have had a recipe for pretzels from Robbie Rice’s “A Way to the Heart” hanging around for AGES and even though I really wanted to try them, I thought it would be hard so I put it off and put it off (artistic skills are not one of my strong points) but then I kinda had to. And that’s because Pretzel World at my local shopping centre shut down! Pretzels weren’t something I bought all the time but every now and again when my husband and I strolled past one we just had to get some. I always got the plain pretzel with a spicy capsicum dip and he always got the cinnamon one.
There’s just something about a pretzel that makes the perfect size snack – not too big, not too sweet and they aren’t deep-fried or fatty or any of those other naughty things.
The whole process is really simple – a quick dough you can make using a dough hook or by hand, one hour to rise, just a couple minutes to roll out and just 8 minutes to bake. Then you can decide if you want them salted, or with cheese or garlic or sweet with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. They freeze brilliantly – you can either just let them come back up to room temperature or microwave for 20 seconds. And I do recommend that you freeze any of the ones you aren’t eating on the day you bake them so they stay fresh and crunchy. Take them to a higher level by topping with pineapple, pepperoni or ham and the kids will devour these if you pop them in their lunch box.
Adapted from Robbie Rice’s Recipe – copycat from a famous American Pretzel chain
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp brown sugar
dash of salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups white flour (bread flour if you have it)
1 tbsp baking soda
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup melted butter
toppings (see notes below)
Method
Combine yeast, brown sugar, salt and 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Stir flour to mixture and knead for five minutes.
Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Divide dough into 8-12 equal-size pieces; roll each piece into a rope.
In a shallow dish, stir baking soda into warm water; dip ropes into mixture, then form into a pretzel shape on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Bake in a 290C (550F) oven for 8 minutes, or until golden brown.
Brush melted butter onto hot pretzels.
Notes: After brushing with butter – for salted pretzels, sprinkle with coarse salt. For cinnamon-sugar pretzels, stir 2 tbsp honey into the melted butter before brushing onto pretzels, then sprinkle with a mixture of 1/2 cup white sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon. For parmesan pretzels, sprinkle with a mixture of 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese and 1 tsp garlic salt.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 4 cups white flour (bread flour if you have it)
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- toppings (see notes below)
Instructions
- Combine yeast, brown sugar, salt and 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
- Stir flour to mixture and knead for five minutes.
- Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
- Divide dough into 8-12 equal-size pieces; roll each piece into a rope.
- In a shallow dish, stir baking soda into warm water; dip ropes into mixture, then form into a pretzel shape on a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Bake in a 290C (550F) oven for 8 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Brush melted butter onto hot pretzels.
Carolyn started her blog Pinkpostitnote.com just over a year ago as a way to deal with her obsession of trying new recipes from the copious collection of cookbooks that she owns (and continues to buy). She is particularly fond of “man” food, both cooking it and eating it. She will happily elbow people out of the road at the sight, sound and smell of a pulled pork burger. When she’s not lying awake at 5am wondering if she should buy chooks and a cow to deal with the constant need for eggs and butter, she’s dealing with all the paperwork associated with owning a bunch of tip trucks and her favorite time of the day is wine five o-clock.
