My second saved recipe is a really exciting one. SOFT PRETZELS!!!!!
They have arrived.
I may get a little loud about it.
I am yet to meet someone who dislikes a nice giant soft pretzel. I’m not sure that’s the kind of person I want to meet.
But did you know they’re pretty easy to make at home? (Caveat: they are time-consuming.) And that way you can sneak in some whole wheat goodness to make a more nutritious and filling giant soft pretzel instead of allowing large quantities of white flour in your belly?
This recipe is very lightly adapted from this Alton Brown recipe. When in doubt, I use an Alton Brown recipe when it might be disastrous for me to experiment on my own. A couple quick changes, and you have vegan, whole wheat pretzels. Yay.
yields 8 pretzels
1 1/2 C warm water (microwave for about 25 seconds)
1 T raw sugar
2 t kosher salt
2 1/4 t active dry yeast (1 package)
4 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine
10 C water
2/3 C baking soda
Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl and allow to sit for about 5 minutes to proof the yeast (this means you need the yeast to get all bubbly – if it doesn’t do this, your yeast is dead and you need to buy fresh!) Then add the flour and Earth Balance and mix until you have a nice smooth dough. You might think you don’t know when dough turns “smooth” – but there is a very distinct change from not-smooth to smooth. You will know.
Put the dough in a well-oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for about an hour, until doubled in size.
Set the water and baking soda to boil. You are going to boil your pretzels! Yup. Then we’ll bake them, so you also want to preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Divide the dough in 8 pieces. One by one, you’ll shape these into pretzels. Way easier than you think. Roll each piece into a long skinny log – don’t be afraid to man-handle the dough a bit. It should be about 12-18 inches long. Lay in a “U” shape, twist the two ends around each other, and then fold them back toward the curved part of the “U.”
Do that with each of them. Get a baking sheet ready and line it with parchment or a silicone baking mat – do NOT just grease the baking sheet, your pretzels will stick. One by one, boil the pretzels for 30 seconds, put on the baking sheet. Brush with a little extra water, then sprinkle with whatever you like – coarse salt is traditional, but I also love using nutritional yeast, rosemary, or truffle salt! Truffle salt + nutritional yeast is really yummy – that’s what’s on the pretzel below.
Yeah. I went there.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes OR you can bake them for about 8-10 minutes until the ends just barely begin to brown. Then you can pop them into a toaster oven before you eat them, and every single pretzel you eat will be fresh and crispy (that is, if you’re hoarding most of them for yourself like I did!) I freeze them when they’re par-cooked so my treats last awhile! Straight into the toaster oven from the freezer 🙂
Yum!
Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 307; Calories from Fat: 60; Total Fat: 6.7g; Saturated Fat: 1.5g; Sodium: 633mg; Total Carbohydrates: 51.5g; Dietary Fiber: 7.0g; Sugars: 1.6g; Protein: 7.2g
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