Pretzel time is always a good time

From wong food!

The previous week I had a failed attempt at English Muffins.

I haven't quite mastered bread baking. I'm in love with the way bread baking should look in my head, like Helen from the All Things Bright and Beautiful series. I should be up to my arms in flour, making bread for my family as my future husband walks in the door of my quaint country home.

Well, I'm certainly getting flour everywhere, and my future husband does walk in the door, but my stand mixer does most of the kneading these days and our quaint country home is a small apartment in San Diego. Almost quaint, right? Almost country, right?

Anyway, the week before I had tried and failed to make english muffins, and I got slightly discouraged. AND I used the very last of the yeast we had. Well, I'm not going to let some little microorganisms get the best of ME at baking! So off to Costco to buy an extraordinarily large and cheap bag of Red Star Active Dry yeast. Naturally, I had to test it out, and boost my confidence again.

It was pretzel time.


I used the "Buttery soft pretzels" recipe in the above link. Here are my personal notes:

• I actually used 3.5 cups of white flour and 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour.
• You can let the dough proof for a looooong time in it's first rise. I accidentally did 3 hours.
• Roll the pretzel rope out THIN. I mean, pencil thin. seriously. You think it looks okay? No, go roll it thinner.
  
• After you make the pretzel shape, lay the dough on the baking sheet with the tails of the pretzel underneath the dough. It keeps them from rising up and off of the rest of the dough.
• I would let them bench proof an additional 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet, after you've formed the shape.
• Brush them with butter after they've come out of the oven.

My confidence definitely came back when my pre-husband exclaimed that these were my best batch yet.