Mini Pretzels

A couple of days ago I made soft pretzels. In Philadelphia you can't go two blocks without seeing a soft pretzel. They're in food carts, corner stores, on shopping carts outside the ballpark. People eat them for breakfast - two at a time! I'm not originally from Philadelphia and at first it struck me as odd to see people eating mustard before 10am. I mean I love salted bagels and I guess they aren't that different from salty pretzels and that wasn't the issue - it was the mustard. I don't want mustard in the morning - I mean mustard and coffee? Yuck. If I were to eat a pretzel in the morning I'd want to dip it in cream cheese.

I do, however, want pretzels and mustard and maybe cheese at 2am after the bar closes. That's where Center City Pretzel Co. comes in. They open at midnight and start making pretzels for vendors to pick up early in the morning. But, luckily, they're also open to the public. The other night (well technically it was early morning) we got 4 pretzels and a cup of cheese for $2. They were delicious and totally worth burning my fingers on. And although late night carbs are definitely not good for the waist line, I think they help prevent the morning hangover, at least that's what I tell myself.

So back to my pretzels. I used this Martha Stewart recipe with the step by step guidance and the idea to make my pretzels mini provided by Deb at Smitten Kitchen. This was a test recipe so I cut it in half - I had no need for 16 jumbo pretzels! I combined the water, sugar, and yeast in my mixer and let it sit for 10 minutes and foam up. I then added the flour, a half of a cup at a time, and salt stirring it all up with the dough hook to combine. I then kneaded it for about a minute in the mixer.

I put my oven on for a few minutes at about 200 while I was making the dough and then turned it off - this made for a warm place for my dough to rest. It sat around for an hour in an oil coated bowl with a clean towel over it while it doubled in size.

When they came out I divided the dough into 16 pieces and used the Martha Stewart diagram to fold them into mini pretzels. Cute right?

While they rested for 10-15 minutes I preheated the oven to 450 and turned water on to boil. Once the water boils, add the baking soda to the pot and bring it down to a simmer. Add the pretzels and simmer for about a minute - I flipped half way through like Deb advised. And yes, this is the biggest pan you'll ever see in a home kitchen! It's huge, it's a freebie from work and I don't know what else I'll ever use it for other then to make a frittata for 15 friends.  

After they simmered I salted and peppered (why not?) them. I didn't have pretzel salt so they didn't look quite as pretty as they could have but the kosher salt still tasted good.


Here they are after about 12 minutes in the oven!

I thought they were good and I must admit I had them for breakfast - actually two of them (like a real Philadelphian would!). But no mustard! Ron said they were "rubbery" and he might be sort of right. But I still want to make mini sandwiches on them. These are best eaten as soon as possible but can sit around for a day or two uncovered so they don't get soggy. I asked Deb about how to prep these ahead and she said that once they are formed into pretzels, cover them with oiled plastic wrap, and put them in the fridge to slowly rise for up to 24 hours. Bring them to room temperature before boiling and baking like you normally would. I think I'll make these again, but next time with a crowd ready to eat them right out of the oven!

Fist Fights and Danish: My first Daring Bakers Challenge

This is my first Daring Bakers Challenge and I was very excited when I saw this month's recipe. I love cooking but I'm new to the baking thing so this was a great challenge - I mean there was YEAST involved! We throw a lot of parties in my house - small impromptu parties and "Oh my god there are way too many people in my house" planned (sort of) parties. People always ask what they can bring and I recently decided that I no longer wanted my response to be "Well you can bring dessert because I don't bake". So for Christmas my boyfriend's family showered me with gifts that would help me conquer my baking fears, including a KitchenAid mixer (WAY too generous but so AWESOME!) and Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, probably knowing that my baking experiments would surely benefit them.

I must admit though that this month has been packed with weddings and work parties and family visits and as June 29th got closer and closer I was thinking "Maybe I'll skip this month's challenge" more and more! But, luckily, my Danish loving boyfriend would not allow that. I started my Danish Wednesday night and as I was about to run around the corner to get whole milk people started fighting in front of my house! They were yelling things that sounded completely ridiculous coming out of fat white men's mouths like "Yo I'm a gansta for real" and "That was a jab! I knocked you out with a jab!" so that delayed things for a minute. It's still funny to me that people are getting in fist fights outside my door while my boyfriend and I listen to NPR and bake Danish!

So anyway I eventually got my milk and made the dough. I was concerned about butter leakage but luckily it was minimal. I did put the butter in the fridge after I made it because I still had about twenty minutes to wait for my dough and I worried it would get too soft. Things were looking good. I made an apple blackberry filling with apples, blackberries, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice and a sweet cream cheese filling with softened cream cheese, lemon juice and honey. I finished my final folds and put it in the fridge to rest. Please forgive the lack of progress photos - I was rushing!

Thursday after work I rolled out the dough and added my filling, cream cheese on the bottom, apples on top. Next time around I'll add more, I think I was too worried about over stuffing. The braid didn't look so good but I didn't have time to worry about it – I had a party to get ready for! So I gave my boyfriend the instructions for egg washing and baking the Danish and left it in his hands. He did a great job as you can see from the photos. Although he did confess that he forgot to turn the oven temp down and ended up just baking the whole thing for twenty minutes on 400 but it still looks and tastes delicious. I can't wait to play with the other half of the dough that's sitting in the freezer! Thanks Daring Bakers for an awesome challenge!