14 August 2011

The forgotten pretzel challenge

I thought the deadline would be next week so imagining my shock when I found out that it was today! Lucky I'm some hours ahead so that means I get some extra time to get it done. If I’d remembered I would’ve made pretzels earlier and not last minute; I hate to be late…but hey, better late then never right.

So before dinner I started with my pretzels or in my case pizzas in disguise. I have never ever made pretzels before and I know you’ll have to dip the dough in some kind of mixture to get the nice and chewy outside, but I am not going to do that. I am just going to stick to what I know and hope/pray it will work out.
I was craving something savory and something sweet so I decide to do both. Since my savory side is a bit stronger then the sweet I wanted to make more savory pretzels. I thought chorizo sausage and jalapeño pepper would taste great together.

I started with making the dough with one cup of warm milk and one table spoon of sugar. To this I added half a package of yeast, which is about 1 teaspoon. I added about 2,5 cup of flour and mixed everything together till it was nice and elastic. Then at the end I added one teaspoon of olive oil and mixed everything for the last time. This mixture went into the oven on 35C degrees for 30 minutes so it could double in volume.


Half an hour gave me plenty of time to cut the sausage and the jalapeño in tiny little cubes.
The dough rose beautifully! I put about 1/3 aside for my sweet tooth.
I added the sausage and the pepper to the dough and mixed everything together.
After the bead down I divided it in 5 “even” balls.
I rolled the dough between my hands till I had one long rope and shaped it as a pretzel. After I finished all brushed them with some egg while (not the sweet ones thought). 
The dough I put aside was perfect for 2 sweet pretzels and sugar/cinnamon sounded just right.
I baked the pretzels on 200C degrees after I preheated it on 250C degrees (the highest my oven can reach) for about 20 minutes.
I knew that the dough would rise in the oven, but I didn’t expect this much. So my pretzels are no longer pretzels, but turned into something better.
Food made straight from the heart!
 
Gina these are for you! I hope you have a wonderful birthday filled with lots of good food, good company and good times!

9 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness Lilly, I find it hard to believe you've never made pretzels before, you are a natural. Thank you so much for these pretzels, you've made my day. I will add them and hopefully post tom.
    -Gina-

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  2. Awesome! I'd never made them before either...I proly never WOULD have made them before if Gina hadn't asked either :) ADORE the chirozo yumminess in these puppies! Well done!

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  3. OMG, Lilly...you're so awesome or coming up with these heart pretzels on such short notice. Sweet AND savory ones too, I'm totally impressed! Can't wait for Gina's round-up and seeing everyone else's pretzels :-). BIG hugs to you, girl!

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  4. You girls are giving me too much credit! I munched on half a heart when I wrote this and it was sooo spicy! Spicy but goooood.
    The hubby took 2 for lunch, hope he can handle the heat.

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  5. Lilly, these pretzels are sounding awesome! The stepwise instructions and the very look of these are simply delishh! Great!!

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  6. Lilly, you are amazing that you just say "okay I'll make it today" and get it done such beautifully. I said to myself "I'm going to make homemade bread one day" and still this point I'm not starting yet (I do have ingredients and everything). You should be REALLY proud of yourself with these Pretzel challenge. I always admire of people joining this kind of cooking challenge. I'm too... lazy.. (shhhh!). =P

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  7. Purabi thank you! It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted to, but it tasted great!

    Nami if you don’t have any kids and all the ingredients you need are in the pantry you can do last minute stuff like this. It was so much fun! We need to have more challenges (I am looking at Maya for this!)

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  8. What a fun challenge. Pretzels is on my to do list- but I am too chicken to make them! I have bad luck with yeast and they sound like a lot of work with the dipping then baking, etc. Yours look super yummy- I like the savory ones!

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  9. Wow.....these look great. The chorizo and jalp are some inspired flavor choices.

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