Pretzels

Finished Pretzels
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I can see myself veering away from super sweet stuff to yeasty items. I made my first post about the Daring Bakers two weeks ago, but they've been together longer than I've been a part of them.

Last year one of their challenges was to make pretzels. Recipe can be found here. I can't say enough about these. They were so easy, and so delicious. And perfect with mustard or plain.

As you can see, mine are a bit pale, and I could have used an extra 2-5 minutes, but they were still good. This was the first time this month I wished I had a pastry brush (the last step includes brushing the pretzels with melted butter) but not the last!

This was the first time in a long while I had kneaded dough by hand - probably not since the day the industrial mixer broke down on challah day, back when I worked at a bakery. I had forgotten how great it feels, both during and after, and don't plan on using the silly dough hooks on my mixer again any time soon. I also have a lovely island in my kitchen now which is perfect for kneading and preparing dough.

A picture of them before baking:


The only thing I can say about these - I wish I hadn't baked them all at once. They get a little soggy and tough after a day or so, and I could have stopped after the last step before baking, and frozen the dough. At least, that's what I'll try next time unless I'm baking for a crowd.

Categories: Bread, Pretzels, Savory, Yeast