Welcome back to my new series…Baking Through the Alphabet (a compliment to Cooking Through the Alphabet)! I’ll bring you a recipe for each letter of the alphabet, either with ingredients or some kind of descriptor. Enjoy!
Today’s recipe is for the letter B: Boiled and Baked Soft Pretzels. This might seem like a bit of a cheat, but I baked these and they were so wonderful, I had to share them. There was just no way I could wait until S or P for this treat. I had been craving a soft pretzel, but knew I could never eat a whole batch, so I specifically did some research for recipes that would freeze well. After I give you the run down, I will give freezing instructions at the end. This recipe is a total win, and reminds me of a Philly pretzel. This taste of home was just what I needed at school.
This was a recipe I adapted from Savvy Eat, which she adapted from Alton Brown! It’s fun that recipes can travel and be slowly adapted by each chef. My tweaks were minimal, but I did want to make it my own a bit.
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 cup avocado oil, and extra to brush on top and grease the pan
- 5 cups water
- ⅓ cup baking soda
- Coarse sea salt for the top
How To Make:
- Combine 1 1/2 cups of warm water, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Let the yeast get foamy for 5 minutes, then add the flour, 2 teaspoons of salt and avocado oil. Knead by hand on a floured surface for 7 minutes.
- Move the dough to a bowl greased with avocado oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for an hour, so it doubles in size.
- Preheat the oven to 450F. Grease a cookie sheet with avocado oil.
- In a medium pot, bring the water and baking soda to a boil
- Grab about equal handfuls of dough and role out into logs. This made 12 pretzels for me. I had an easier time turning them into C-Shaped pretzels than the classic shape. You can also cut the log into nuggets, which is my plan for next time!
- Boil each pretzel in the water for 30 seconds or so, and try to flip it so both sides are submerged. Use a slotted spoon to move the pretzel to the cookie sheet.
- Coat the top with avocado oil (with a brush, or I used a spray), and add course salt on top.
- Bake at 450F for 13 minutes, or a little longer so the surface goes brown and crackled (like a pretzel normally looks).
To freeze, follow the recipe completely, then once cooled, but in airtight containers or ziplocs and pop in the freezer. Reheat in the microwave for 1 minute on medium power, or pop into the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. The oven is better, but the microwave is great if you’re in a pinch!
These delicious pretzels are a great snack to have on hand in the freezer, and would be so fun to serve at a party or tailgate! I think I will make these again this fall for a PSU football game!
All thoughts and opinions are my own.