Pretzels!
Who doesn’t love a fresh from the oven, warm pretzel (or two!). One of the quintessential mall foods, my daughter and I decided we had to conquer this recipe during this quarantine period. And we’ve made it twice now, improving on technique, taste and texture each time. My daughter is definitely better at shaping them. I do the rest. If I close my eyes, I could almost believe I’m in some mall. So while it satisfies the pretzel craving, it also provides some retail therapy relief!
Servings Prep Time
8pretzels 30minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
11minutes 1hours
Servings Prep Time
8pretzels 30minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
11minutes 1hours
Ingredients
  • 21/4tsp/1 packet yeastif using instant, no need to activate and can be mixed in with all ingredients right away
  • 21/4cups AP Flour
  • 3tbsp brown/raw sugar
  • 2tsp Salt
  • 1cup warm milknot too hot; you should be able to touch it without getting scalded
  • 2tbsp Butter
  • more about 4 tbsp Butterto brush the pretzels before and after baking
  • pretzel/coarsesalt to season the pretzels
  • 1/4cup chopped jalapeñosI used fresh, but typically pickled jalapeños are used, after draining and drying
Pretzel Bath (yes, it’s a thing!)
  • 3cups Water
  • 1/4cup baking soda
Instructions
  1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm milk + butter. If using instant yeast, add the rest immediately (flour, salt). If using active dry yeast, wait for the yeast to bloom – about 5-10 minutes
  2. Add jalapenos if using into the flour mix. Mix gently into a tacky dough. Turn on to a lightly floured board. Knead for about 5-10 times into a soft dough. Take rest 😉 for an hour and let the dough rise
  3. After 1 hour, the dough should have doubled; about 30 mins into the resting time, preheat oven to 450.
  4. Gently deflate the dough. Divide into 8 equal sized balls
  5. Heat the water to a rolling boil, reduce the heat and add baking soda and keep it warm
  6. Working with 1 ball at a time, stretch each one into a long rope of even thickness.
  7. Shape into a pretzel; this comes with practice; please watch video attached
  8. Dunk into the pretzel bath with a slotted spoon; While makign this the second time, we learned that the pretzels floated to the top after a few seconds and that was our cue to remove it; it was actually pretty cool to watch
  9. Remove the pretzel and place it on a baking sheet; brush with more butter and pretzel or coarse salt
  10. Once done, bake for 11 minutes and experience that mall smell;
  11. Serve with a dip of your choice
Recipe Notes

Verdict:

These were the best pretzels ever! My house smelled like Auntie Anne’s kiosk 🙂

What I learned:

About the pretzel bath – most sites I referred to had a range of time to dunk them in – from 10 to 30 seconds. But when we actually did it, we found that the pretzel floated to the top after a few seconds and took that as a sign that they had boiled enough! It was pretty cool to watch!

A brief history of pretzels:

We all know that pretzels came from Germany. But did you know that there are references to it as early as 1111? And there are stories of Italian and French monks inventing it, and they rewarded them to children who had memorized their prayers. And they were designed to resemble little hands folded in prayer? All this and more in this article I found while researching pretzels.

Shaping a pretzel

A history of pretzels