First attempt of making bread!

I had the urge of making bread last weekend and instead of baking plain bread, I attempted to make pretzels. Yup, you hear me correctly: PRETZELS! I'm crazy and too ambitious ...


Browsing through various blogs, I found this post 'How to Make Soft Pretzels' by Joy the Baker and it seems like a good place to start with.


Recipe (adapted from Joy the Baker)


1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
3 3/4 to 4 cups of plain flour
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 tbsp baking soda
Water
Toppings for pretzel: salt, cheese, cinnamon sugar (up to your own liking)


Methods:



Stir sugar, yeast and 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water in a glass measuring cup or bowl. Stand until foamy (takes about 5 minutes).

Whisk together 3 1/2 cups of flour and 1 tbsp salt in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture and stir until it forms a dough. Dust work surface with flour, then turn out dough and knead, gradually dusting with enough additional flour to make a smooth sticky dough (about 5-8 minutes).

Return dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise until it doubled in size (about 45 min to 1 hr).

The dough (doubled in size)! Haven't knead before and luckily G taught me how to knead. 

Turn out dough onto a clean working surface and divide into 8 portions. I divided mine into 12 portions. (It depends whether you want to make a small or big sized pretzels)
Using your palms, roll one piece into a rope until it's about 30 cm or longer or to a thickness of 1.5-2 cm diameter.

Twist dough into a pretzel shape.

First attempt at twisting the dough into pretzel shape

As you can see here, there's various size of my pretzels (small to big). You definitely work your biceps trying to roll the dough.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add baking soda which will help the pretzels brown. Carefully add pretzels into the boiling water and cook, turning over once, until pretzels are puffed and shape is set, about 3-5 minutes.

I was getting excited at this stage ... hehe! I did not turn the pretzels for the first batch and I think it wasn't cook entirely after baking. Oops! But I did for the following batches.

Transfer parboiled pretzels onto baking sheet. Brush pretzels with egg and sprinkle with salt or cheese.

Bake at 200 C until golden brown and lightly crusted, about 15-20 minutes.

Salt pretzels

Cheese pretzels

For the cinnamon sugared pretzels, bake the plain pretzels until golden brown. Brush it with melted butter and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar.

The verdict:

• pretty good for first attempt (may be my last, who knows?)
• good arm workout =)
• time consuming (I got a tiny oven)
• eat it on the same day

I pity my food tasters (G and B)! The pretzels were definitely no where near the one sold outside but they said it was pretty good. They are just too polite and kind. =)