Pretzels!

(this one is cheese-filled, and some of the cheese oozed out... yum!)

I'm not going to lie, the only thing I did here was take the pictures and eat the pretzels. Oh, and I preheated the oven. I got home and Ed was making pretzels, which sounded like a fantastic idea. One of them had cheese in it, and really, that was the best one, according to me. Ed thought the ones without cheese were better. They were good, don't get me wrong, but generally, melted cheese makes anything better in Alex-land.

The recipe came from the King Arthur Flour book, and Ed cut it in half since he didn't know what he'd do with 16 pretzels. I guess that was smart. The recipe is the same as a basic bread recipe, then you let it rise until doubled. Cut the dough into 8 pieces, roll them into snakes, let the snakes relax a bit, roll them out some more, twist them up, and let them sit for 20min. About. Then boil them for a minute, brush with egg wash and salt, and bake in a hot oven. A bunch of steps, but overall pretty easy.

Ingredients:
3C all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp yeast
1-1/2 tsp sugar
1C warm water
1-1/2 tsp salt
3-4C grated cheddar cheese (optional)

6C water
2 tbs baking soda

1 egg and 1 tsp water for the egg wash

The Method:
Dissolve the sugar into the water, then add the yeast. Let that sit until the yeast is all activated and bubbly, then add a cup of flour. Stir that in, then add the salt. Add the rest of the flour. It might not mix completely, that is fine, you can finish adding it all as you knead. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, until it is very smooth and shiny and stretchy. Grease a clean bowl, and let your dough rise until it's about doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces (use a big knife for this). Roll each piece into the longest snake you can manage. Let the snakes sit for a couple minutes to relax, then roll them out again. Then you can twist them up into pretzel shapes. Let them sit for (ideally) 20 minutes. We got away with 10 minutes.

Cheese-filled pretzels
If you want to make cheese-filled pretzels, use a rolling pin and flatten out the snake as wide as it will go. Using about half a cup of cheese per pretzel, pack some cheese against one of the edges of the flattened snake. Roll the snake from the long end, to close up a tube of cheese. Pinch the long edge firmly shut once you're done rolling, or else the snake will come undone and cheese will ooze everywhere. Pinch the ends shut, then twist up your pretzels into pretzel shapes and continue with the regular instructions.

Cooking the pretzels
Preheat your oven to 450F. Bring 6 cups of water and 2 tbs of baking soda to a boil. You'll want to reduce this heat a little when you start cooking the pretzels, so that you don't deflate them. Apparently, any sudden movements will deflate the pretzels, so be very careful moving them around. Simmer each pretzel for about one minute, then remove them with a spatula or slotted spoon to the greased baking sheet, brush with the egg wash, and sprinkle with coarse-grained salt or herbs or something. Bake the boiled pretzels in the upper third of the oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown and done-looking.


A plateful of pretzels!