Pretzels
Makes 6 large pretzels
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
240-360g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
245g warm low-fat milk
1. Combine all of the
ingredients in a bowl and mix together until it forms a ball. I start with 240g
of the flour and mix it together until it forms something like a thick batter,
then add more flour a handful at a time until it'll form a nice ball that I can
knead by hand.
2. Either use an
electric mixer to mix the dough for 5 minutes or remove it from the bowl and
knead it by hand for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough begins to get smooth and
satiny.
3. ** If you are going
to ferment the dough (more information on whether this set is necessary below),
return the ball of dough to a clean, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and
set it aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately an hour.
4. ** If you fermented
it, degas the dough gently before moving on to the next step.
Before shaping, start
preheating the oven to 210 deg C.
5. Cut the dough into
6 pieces. Roll (on a slightly floured surface) each one into a short log, cover
with a towel, and let the dough relax for 5 to 10 minutes. After it has relaxed
you should be able to roll it out and stretch again fairly easily. Let rest for
another 10-15mins.
6. To eggwash them: Simply place them on a baking sheet,
brush them gently with an egg that has been whisked, then sprinkle with coarse
salt or other toppings. *eggwash all around the pretzel, else can see the white
flour.
7. Place
the baking sheets into the oven. It took around 15 minutes for my pretzels to
get golden and brown. Remove from the oven and eat immediately.
For
pretzel bread, bake at 210C for 15mins then lower to 170C for another 10mins
(too long, bread was overbaked).
** Truthfully, I couldn't
tell the difference between the batch that I let ferment for an hour and the
batch I baked immediately. If I were tasting them side by side with no toppings
I probably could detect a slight difference. But at least when I eat soft
pretzels they are a medium for other flavors (salt and mustard), either method
produces an adequate pretzel.
Adapted from: thefreshloaf
