Homemade Soft Pretzels, batch #2

I planned to make these yesterday but didn't get around to it. The 1-hour proof for the dough turned into a 24-hour proof on the kitchen counter. This hasn't affected the taste or the rise at all. It made 2 lb 7 oz of dough. I converted the weight to ounces then divided by the number of portions I wanted to make. In this recipe I am making 12 pretzels, so each weighed out to be 3 1/8 to 3 1/4 oz on the digital scale. The biggest difference between batch #1 and batch #2 is the exclusion of milk in the dough recipe and the use of baked baking soda in the boiling stage instead of baking soda.

This NY Times article suggests how baked baking soda affects bread-based recipes like noodles and pretzels. However, the sodium carbonate is not the same as potassium carbonate used in Chinese cooking for ramen noodles and mooncake dough. I store my baked baking soda in a lidded mason jar.

Also, the warm water for the yeast was only 75 degrees F instead of the usual 110-115 degrees F. This also doesn't seem to have any effect on the rise of the dough. The weather has been unusually warm for this time of the year. Yesterday we hit a high of 70 degrees, with humidity; though, today we are back in the mid-50s with rain.

Dough Ingredients

1 1/2 c warm water (115 degrees F)
1 tbsp organic granulated sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 package)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (I think by mistake I put in 4 oz melted butter)
4 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour

Baking Soda Water Ingredients

2/3 c baked baking soda
10 c filtered water

Egg Wash for Pretzels

1 tbsp filtered water
1 egg yolk

Directions

For the dough ingredients, combine sugar, 1 tsp kosher salt and warm water in a 2-cup measuring cup. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Add yeast, stir. Let sit for 5 mins, until the yeast foams up.

In a 7-cup food processor, add flour, butter and 1 tsp kosher salt. Pulse together. Next, add the water/yeast slurry and blend until the dough comes together. Pulse or run the processor for 1-2 minutes. It'll be sticky (vs smooth and satiny in a stand mixer) and this is okay. You don't want to burn out the motor mixing a heavy dough like this.

Prepare a 5-quart mixing bowl with 1 tsp olive oil. Just swirl it around on the bottom. Dump the blob of dough into the bowl. You could rotate the blob so that it gets coated with the oil, but this is really not necessary. Cover the bowl with a dinner plate and set in a warm place in the kitchen. Let dough rise for at least an hour.

Bring a pot of water (10 cups) plus the baked baking soda to a boil. This will take some time, so better to start this step before portioning the dough.

Weigh your dough. Then divide it by the number of portions you want to make. This batch made 12 pretzels when rolled out to 18-20 inches. Alton's method makes 8 portions at 24 inches.

Place your dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Given the day's humidity, I did not spritz the kitchen towels with water.

Roll each piece into a 18" to 20" log. If you have trouble figuring out how long this really is, either have a 24" cutting board and measure out 4" from the edge and mark it with a post-it note or tape one of those IKEA paper tape measures to your kitchen counter.

I did a variety of shapes to play with the dough. A double twist looked the most fashionable. Place each shaped pretzel back onto the parchment paper and cover with a kitchen towel until you have rolled out and shaped all the portions of dough. At this point, you could let the dough rise again. Mine did not and that is probably because I didn't knead the dough until it was smooth, or because I let it proof so long the yeast was entirely spent from farting all night.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (This should take about 10 minutes)

By now, the pot of water should have come to a boil. Drop in two pretzels at a time and boil for 30 seconds. I used a slotted metal spatula to get the pretzels. Remove pretzels from the water and place back onto the parchment-lined trays. Repeat until all the pretzels have bathed in the baking soda solution.

Next, make the egg wash by whisking together water and egg yolk with a fork in a small bowl. Lightly brush this on top of each pretzel before baking. You can sprinkle coarse kosher salt on top or herbs or grated cheese or leave it plain. For this batch, I used a sparse amount of kosher salt.

Bake for 14 minutes total. At the 7-minute mark, rotate all the trays.

Let pretzels cool on a rack. Enjoy with or without mustard.

The ingredient ratio and methodology is adapted from Alton Brown.

Homemade Soft Prezels (batch #1)

This recipe seemed easy enough to do. How could it possibly fail after having such rave reviews by FN commenters. There are a few things wrong with it. For starters, the dough is way too soft. Yeah, I know the title of the recipe is soft pretzels but there is soft, and then there is soft and chewy; the latter of which is what we pay a premium for at amusement parks. These taste okay. I made some alterations to the mustard sauce recipe. And, because our weather went from awesome to sux0rz, I used a bread machine to mix and proof the dough. I don't recommend using coarse salt. With the baking soda bath, it tastes salty enough.

Homemade Soft Pretzels, lightly buttered

Ingredients

1 c. whole milk
1 pkg active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
2 1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1 tsp fine salt
1/3 c. baking soda + 3 cups warm water
a stick of cold butter (optional)

Directions

1. In a bread machine, add these ingredients in this order: milk, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast. Set the machine on the "dough" cycle. Come back in 1.5 hours.

2. Take the dough out of the bread machine. It'll be sticky, but manageable. Knead it a few times until it is smooth. Using a sharp knife, divide the dough into equal portions. This batch made six pretzels and from the photo, apparently I didn't roll the dough to a long enough rope length.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

4. In a shallow baking dish, dissolve baking soda in warm water. Dip each pretzel into the soda water. Take out and set onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake pretzels for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

6. Remove pretzels to a rack to cool. Optional step: use a cold stick of butter on the hot pretzels to lightly butter them. Don't add any more coarse salt. They should be good to eat.

Pretzel Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp organic mayonnaise
2 tbsp Plouchman's mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
splash of smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce

Mix ingredients together in a small bowl. This, btw, makes too much sauce for a mere half dozen pretzels. I'd probably cut the ratio in half again.