Best Homemade Soft Pretzels

These are so much better than those expensive store pretzels with unpronounceable ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
4 1/2 cups flour
2 ounces butter, melted

Water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg

Our house is pretty cold, so it’s hard to get yeast breads to rise in winter. If this is true for you also, turn your oven on to 200 degrees F before you start the recipe. Set the timer for 10 minutes—after that, turn the oven off. This will give your dough a nice, warm place to rise.

Combine the water, sugar, kosher salt, and yeast in your mixer bowl. Swish with a fork to combine and let it sit for a few minutes.

Sift the flour into a separate bowl. Once the yeast mixture has a few bubbles on top, add the flour and butter to the mixer bowl and mix on low until everything is combined. Then change to medium and mix until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Is your oven off? If it’s been on longer than 10 minutes, shut it off and leave the door open for a bit.

Grab an ovenproof bowl and spray it with nonstick spray (remember to set the bowl on your dishwasher door!). Put the dough in, cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in the oven to rise.

After about an hour, it will double in size and look like this.

Bring it out of the oven and plop it on a clean, lightly oiled counter. Divide it into eight equal pieces and prepare to pretzel!

Roll each piece into a long rope. Start your pretzel by making a U. Then cross the ends over each other a couple times and stick to the bottom of the U.

 

  

  

 

Fire up the oven again, this time to 450 degrees F. Bring a large pan of water to a boil and add the baking soda. This will really fizz up, so fill the pan half full to avoid a mess.

Slip the pretzels into the boiling water, one at a time, and cook for a minute each.

Remove them from the water and place them on a cookie sheet that’s lined with parchment paper (I used Silpat, but parchment would have been better).


Make an egg wash by mixing one egg and a tablespoon of water. This is a spring whisk, and it’s fantastic for mixing eggs. It squishes like a spring while it whisks, so you get light, frothy eggs in a flash.

Once all of your pretzels are on the cookie sheet, brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle with salt.

Bake until dark golden brown, about 12-14 minutes. Then place on a rack for a few minutes until they’ve cooled down enough to eat!

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

If your kids are sick in bed (or on the couch), bring their meals to them in a muffin tin. They'll have fun with the presentation and there will be less chance of spills. And if you use paper muffin cups, cleanup is easy too.

A Rainy Monday in the Garden

Snow peas

Bok choi gone to seed

Shallots and garlic

Parsley

An afternoon visitor

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

Is saving money on groceries one of your New Year's resolutions?

Don't forget your local food bank or homeless shelter when you're clipping those coupons and scoring great deals. If you find something for an exceptional price, pick up an extra item and donate it.

Find your local food bank at http://feedingamerica.org.

Preparing for Spring

Winter is a time of hard work for us gardeners.

There are seed catalogs to read, crop rotations to plot, compost piles to worry over, and more.

While you're sitting in the house with cabin fever, don't forget to save some household items from the recycling bin for use in your spring garden.

TP and paper towel tubes are perfect fortresses for little seedlings. Cut TP tubes in half and larger tubes in fourths or thirds. (Decorating them to look like castles is optional.)

Juice or milk jugs can be reused as cloches to protect seedlings from weather extremes and marauding neighbor kitties.

What other items do you save for reuse in the garden? Share your ideas with us in the comments.

Front Yard Garden: Mulch Milestone

Finally! All the cardboard is down and covered with leaves. Lots and lots of leaves, courtesy of Uncle Mark (who has 8 zillion trees in his yard and an obsessive need to keep the yard clean). Thanks, Uncle Mark!

 

Now the planning begins...I've gone through several pieces of graph paper and will post my ideas soon. Anybody have suggestions for a south-facing patch of yard? Maybe a green bean teepee, some peppers and the kniphs from Between The Limes. Yes, Brown Thumb Papa's rose has to stay.

Share your suggestions in the comments!

Why Didn't I Think of That? Wednesday

Each Wednesday I'll share a tip to make your week go more smoothly or just make you say "aha!"

Are you an eggnog addict? Buy extra now and freeze it, before it's gone from the stores. Be sure to allow some expansion room when freezing. When you next have a 'nog craving, thaw it in the fridge and shake well before serving.

Bonus tip: Use eggnog instead of milk the next time you make scones. Mmmm...