leftovers from an order of pretzel bites they picked up at the mall. I've been wanting more ever since. I started pinning recipes and doing some comparing. They all seemed about the same but
THIS ONE from FoodNetwork.com had a higher rating so I went with it. Instead of making them on Monday, I waited until Little E was here. You know, it's always best to try new recipes with yeast when you're tending to a baby. Anyway, the recipe called for one packet of yeast. They come in a strip of three so I cut one off and got busy. I warmed the milk, poured it in a bowl and dumped the yeast in. I waited and it never started activating like it normally does. Did I get the milk too hot and kill it? I don't know. I poured it out. I heated up more milk and dumped the second packet in. I decided I'd take the last packet and heat milk up in the microwave and start it in another bowl. The second bowl was looking a lot like the first so with the third, I dumped the brown sugar into the milk before the yeast. The sugar feeds the yeast so maybe that would help it get started. I stuck my finger in the milk to make sure it wasn't too hot and everything seemed fine. If these didn't work, I was done and wasn't going to waste anymore yeast. They all looked about the same. I made the call to keep on and made dough of each bowl. I'd give them their hour rise time and if there was no change, they'd go in the garbage. If it worked, I'd end up with 12 pretzels instead of 6. I waited and there it was. Double the size. Huh. Okay. It worked. I started dividing and rolling and twisting and dunking and sprinkling. That was a MESSY process. Wow, was it messy. I got the first tray done and stuck them in the oven.
Here goes nothing.
They were thicker than I wanted but I didn't have the space or time to keep rolling.
After a few minutes in the oven, it started smelling like the mall's pretzel joint in here. I was getting so excited. I pulled them out of the oven and instead of dipping them in butter, I just brushed it on. At this point you're supposed to put them on a drying rack and let them cool. Yeah, right.
I had to hurry and sample one and OH, WOW. They did taste like the mall's pretzels.
I could have gone easier on the salt but oh well, I didn't. Live and learn. I also could have tried some dipping sauce but I didn't. Oh, maybe a beer cheese? Yum. These were exactly what I was looking for. Now. If I needed a pretzel fix would I make them again? Probably, if I had plenty of time and space and nothing else going on. If it was like yesterday with several different things going on at once, I'd probably make a trip to the mall. I'm just so happy that after going over recipes, the one I picked was the ONE.
I have to get up and quit drooling over these pics. I wonder if they're just as tasty the next morning?
