New Recipe #8: Soft pretzels

Last week, JG had to proctor the Pennsylvania state standards test for math at his high school. In what I think is a rather nice gesture, the school provides a snack for the kids halfway through each exam period. Anyway, at the end of one of these exam days, JG told me that he had a special request, if I hadn’t gathered any new recipes to try for April.

“Sure, what is it?”

“Soft pretzels.”

That day, the kids’ snacks were soft pretzels and string cheese. JG ate “like five string cheeses” and fantasized about soft pretzels for the rest of the day, and so I looked up the recipe from the Good Eats episode on that topic. Alton Brown to the rescue, again!

As it turned out, we already had all of the ingredients on hand as well as a free Saturday afternoon for the experiment, so it was serendipitous all around. I was excited to use my dough hook attachment for something other than Captain Hook impressions, and after I confirmed that there is a difference between “active yeast” and “highly active yeast” (beware!), the dough came together in just a couple of minutes. I slapped plastic wrap onto the batter bowl and placed it in the proscribed “warm place,” or as I like to call it, my oven, with the light on and the door propped open.

An hour later, I dumped out the dough on my cutting board to start forming pretzel shapes. I was a bit unnerved that it hadn’t doubled in size, as far as I could tell, and that I had no way of making equal portions of dough, but I figured that pretzel-making is more free-form than anything else. I had a bit of a hard time with the process because my work surface was shorter than the 24 inches Alton recommended for the lengths of dough. I just resigned myself to making chubbier pretzels, which, I reasoned, would be that much cuter.

Meanwhile, I enlisted JG to put a pot of water and baking soda on to boil. According to Alton, dipping the pretzels into this solution prior to baking will increase the pH of the outer layer of dough and result in a nice brown color. Without this step, similar to the boiling of bagels, one would end up with pale, yet tasty, pretzels.

JG and I set up an assembly line to finish up the pre-baking preparation. He used a flat spatula to lift up the shaped pretzels from the pans and lower them into the boiling water to bob around for 30 seconds. Then he slid the poached pretzel onto an awaiting baking sheet, where I brushed it with egg wash and sprinkled with salt. Five minutes later, the pretzels were in the oven; eight minutes later, they were nice and brown and dying to come out. I’m not sure where we sliced off half of the baking time, but I’m glad that JG realized that that they were ready. The finished pretzels left their toasty impressions on the parchment paper lining, which I noticed as I laid out the fragrant twists onto a cooling rack.

After five torturous minutes of cooling time, JG picked up his first victim. The pretzel yielded easily to being pulled apart at the twist, and JG dipped a chunk into a pool of yellow mustard. He chewed and contemplated. All the while, my brain was racing. What if he didn’t like it? What did I do wrong? Not salty enough? But this is his special request! What is taking so long?

Finally, JG laid down the verdict. “I think that was the best soft pretzel I have ever had.”

What?

I took a pretzel for myself to confirm. Indeed! the dough was pliable and delicious, and the outside had browned up pleasantly. It was strange to eat a food in my own kitchen that I associate so strongly with the mall, fairs, and ballparks, but they were so tasty! One pretzel was enough for my afternoon snack, but JG helped himself to two more. We talked about the possibilities of making half-sized pretzels for a Super Bowl party, or whatever excuse we could muster to make them again.

Next time, I might lower the oven heat just a tad so that the inside cooks more thoroughly and the outside cooks less quickly, and I won’t brush the parchment with oil, since the bottoms of the pretzels were kind of crusty. We also used kosher salt on top, but I may have to invest in some pretzel salt in the future, and wait until just before popping in the oven before sprinkling. Tweaks notwithstanding, I have to hand it to Alton and his recipe. He has never failed us, and I have the pretzels to prove it.