[ENG] Simply Pretzels! [Part 1]

Pretzel isn't very common here in Indonesia, but you can find them at Auntie Anne's stores in some of the shopping malls in Jakarta. 

Visually, it doesn't look super tasty or anything, but my sister's friend said it's quite good, so i tried it. And i really like it! It's chewy, savory, it's more than just a bread! I tried the cheese & cinnamon sugar btw, and i love them! So, i tried to make them myself just so i can eat more of them lol 

Original recipe from Food Network Kitchen - Almost Famous Soft Pretzels

Ingredients (for 6 pretzels):

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
1 package active dry yeast (or 1 2/3 tsp instant yeast)
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cup (312-344 grams) all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
28 g unsalted butter, diced & soften
1/3 cup (83 ml) baking soda
3 cup (750 ml)warm water
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water
salted butter, melted (about 5 tbsp)

for topping:
coarse salt
castor sugar
cinnamon powder
grated cheese 

1. Warm the milk, pour it into a medium/large bowl and sprinkle the yeast. Let the yeast soften, for about 2 minutes. 

2. Stir in 1 cup flour & brown sugar with a wooden spoon.  Stir in the diced & soften butter.

3. Add the rest of the flour & salt, mix well to make a sticky dough. Add enough flour if necessary until the dough just pull away from the sides of the bowl.

this was actually too wet & had to be added about 1/4-1/2 cup flour

4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead, adding enough flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky for about 10-15 minutes. Shape it into a ball.

this dough was really wet that i had to add about another 1/2 cup of flour -.-

5. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, brush the top lightly with oil/butter, cover with plastic warp or kitchen napkin. Let rise in warm spot until double in size, about 1-1 1/2 hour.

poke the center of the dough, if it doesn't bounce back, it means that it has risen enough

6. Turn out the dough in a lightly floured surface, punch the dough to deflate it.

Shape it into a ball, flat it down into a disk, then divide it into 6 pieces.

7. Take a piece of dough, shape it into a kinda rectangular shape, roll it tightly & pinch the seams. Repeat for all the dough pieces. Rest the dough for 10 minutes.

8. If your oven isn't big enough to bake all the 6 pretzels at once, wrap the remaining dough pieces in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge immediately after you shape them (i baked 2 pretzels at a time so i put away 4 pieces of dough in the fridge). Preheat the oven to 230 C (425 F). Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups of warm water in a shallow dish (you can use microwave to heat the water).

9. Roll the dough into a 75-90 cm long rope. Shape it into pretzel shape. Repeat to all of the dough pieces. (Check the links at the end of this post to see the video of how to roll & shape the dough)

10. Gently dip the pretzel in the soda solution, place it on a kitchen napkin to drain the water on the back of the dough. Arrange on a lightly buttered baking sheet. Repeat for all the pretzel dough.

11. Brush them with egg yolk & water mixture, sprinkle them with coarse salt (for original salty pretzel). Immediately put them in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, turning them halfway through.

12. Place them on a wire rack, brush generously with salted butter. 

For pretzel with other toppings & some details of the process please read...
[ENG] Simply Pretzels! [Part 2]


References:
The Bread Kitchen - Soft German-Style Pretzels
How to make Autie Anne's Soft Pretzels
Disney World Pretzel Recipe