Saturday, January 2, 2010

Pretzels


Welcome to 2010. I haven't been on here for a while because I almost gave up. No comments made it seem that no one was reading and what is the point of writing this if no one is reading. However, I am going to stick with this. Also, I will try to add more recipes that involve the dreaded Volumetric measure system. Ick. But I'll do it for you.

Pretzels. Hard crumbly pretzels are made using a lye bath. Have you ever seen Fight Club? I don't want to mess with lye in my kitchen. This recipe is for glorious soft pretzels. These are perfect for dipping in sauce or just eating plain as a snack. They can be covered in cinnamon and sugar for a breakfast treat or slathered in marinara and cheese to make an afternoon pizza-y snack. This recipe makes 6 75-80 gram pretzels.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine:

3/4 cup warm water
1/2 Tbl yeast
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
(1 Tbl gluten--optional)
These do not need salt in the dough.


Kneed until dough forms a smooth ball: 5-7 minutes.

Let rest for 20 minutes or store dough in refridgerator overnight for even better flavor.

Scale dough into 75-80 gram balls, or six pieces.

Roll each into a thin rope, approx 1 1/2 feet in length, and shape into your desired pretzel shape.

Boil each pretzel in water that contains 2 Tbl baking soda and 2 Tbl mild molasses. (Baking soda gives it a darker color and molasses gives it shine--this doesn't seem correct but it is) Boil each pretzel for 30 sec total.

Give each pretzel an egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt or other topping of your choosing.

Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes. Let the pretzels get a little dark but you don't want to over cook them.

These can be enjoyed right out of the oven.




Bakers Percents:

100% Flour
64% Water
10% Brown sugar
2% Yeast
2% Gluten

with a poolish--this gives them a more complex flavor

Poolish:

100% Flour
178% Water
0.01% Yeast
(with a 200 gram flour poolish I generally add 1/8 tsp for an overnight ferement, but the amount of yeast will depend on how long you intend to let your poolish ferment: shorter ferement=more yeast)

100% Flour
20% Poolish
52% Water
10% Brown sugar
1% Yeast
2% Gluten

10 80gram pretzels:

430g Flour (I used 50/50 with AP and whole wheat flour)
86g Poolish
224g Water
43g Brown sugar
4g Yeast
8g Gluten


2 comments:

  1. So you did the boil after all. I've always felt the egg wash was plenty of shine. I also always do whole grain, so darkening was never an issue. Yours look great!

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  2. Hi Justin, please don't give up your weblog. No comments doesn't mean that nobody visits your blog!

    We love pretzels but I've never made them with a poolish and also never boiled them before baking.
    The salt makes them so attractive and delicious.
    By the way: your picture are wonderful.

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