That's not my knickers that are twisted! A&S Project #13 - Soft Pretzels!!

Per the request of one of my shire members, who fell in love with the soft pretzel rolls served on campus, but who would like to be able to simply make them himself (and not pay the insane cost), I decided to try my hand at soft pretzels.

Thanks to the recommendation of a dear (and much missed!!!) friend, I used the recipe from Alton Brown (I love that man).  And, amazingly enough, pretzels start off like bread!  Haha!  I can do this!  So, once the bread rises, and it's punched down, it gets divided into eight even sizde hunks of dough which are then rolled out and twisted into the familiar pretzel shape.  

While the pretzels rest, 10 cups of water are brought to a rolling boil, with 2/3 of a cup of baking soda dissolved in the water.  One by one, the pretzels are dipped into the water,where they puff up slightly.  It's pretty fun to watch!

After the bagels are bathed in the boiling water, they are set on baking sheets.  The pretzels are then brushed with an egg yolk wash, sprinkled with coarse salt, and baked at 450F for 12-14 minutes.

The pretzels have to rest for 5-10 minutes and cool, and I swear, it's a test of willpower that transcends almost all others!!  The smell of warm, fresh pretzels is just wonderful.  One snag, the directions from Alton Brown indicate that you should set the bagels directly on the parchment paper when you pull them from the boiling water, but I found that the bagels stuck to the parchment paper.  I'm going to try letting them drip dry on a cooling rack before settting them on the parchment-lined baking sheet next time (tonight!  teehee.  They *were* delicious!)

I had eight pretzels to serve when dinner began.  By the end, there was one half-pretzel and a few crumbs left on the platter.  The half-pretzel was part of my lunch, and it was still delicious out of the fridge and still cold. ;)  I recommend people try this.  If you can make bread, you can very easily make soft pretzels!  My next project in this vein?  BAGELS! ;)  Stay tuned!