Mmm…Soft Pretzels

I love soft pretzels.  Love them.  L-o-v-e them.  Want me to say it backward?  Them love I.  When we go to a baseball game, I like to get a soft pretzel and a big Coke.  (Only 37 days til Opening Day!!)  I like when restaurants have pretzel bites for appetizers, and I like sandwiches on pretzel bread.  I tried to make soft pretzels once, years ago, but they didn’t quite turn out.  They were good, but they didn’t have that golden brown crust.  I’ve pinned at least three pretzel recipes to Pinterest.   That’s where I found this one.  Click here for the link to the recipe.

Looking at what the pretzel recipes I pinned have in common, I’m thinking that the step I was missing was boiling the pretzels before baking.  I’m pretty sure in my previous attempt the recipe only called for an egg wash.  I nearly botched this step tonight, because I almost added baking powder to the water instead of baking soda.  Who knows how that would’ve turned out.  I might have missed out on creating the next big thing.

The recipe was really easy, but it almost caused my mixer to leap off the counter.  The dough didn’t seem that thick, but it was enough to make my mixer hop around if I wasn’t holding on to it.  I’m sure a Kitchen Aid wouldn’t behave like that, but my Sunbeam Mixmaster that I got as a wedding present almost 14 years ago does just fine, and I have to admit I prefer the glass bowls it has.  Someday, I’ll splurge on a beautiful, shiny, new Kitchen Aid…  (While we’re on the subject of a wishlist, I read a blog post today about an Aga oven, and while I didn’t even know they existed 13 hours ago, now I kinda want one.  That, however, will take a bit more saving.  I only wish I hadn’t looked up how much they cost!)

I let the dough rise about 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for, but that was because it was time for supper.  The recipe recommends making 8 big pretzels or 30 smaller ones; I made 12.  We’ll call them middle-sized.  They are delicious.  Wonderful.  A keeper.  The only problem, and this is minor as far as problems go, is that where the egg wash collected along the bottom of the pretzel, it turned a nice, green, moldy color.  It peeled off easily, and didn’t affect the taste.  Son C was grossed out enough to not even try them, but S and I thought they were excellent.  More for us!

***The next day:  How good are these pretzels?  I took one to school with me today, and one for S to eat after school.  I ended up eating hers too and had to go home at my lunchtime to get another one for her!  She still doesn’t know I ate her first one!!  🙂

• Posted in: cooking ♦ life ♦ random
• Tagged: baking, baseball, food, keeper, new recipe, pinterest, pretzels, princess bride, yum!