Jun 21, 2009

Pretzels

Everybody loves pretzels - crunchy, brown, salty heart-shaped snacks! Did you know pretzels have been around for approximately thirteen hundred and ninety years?  Pretzels were invented by an ambitious monk baking unleavened bread for the Christian Lent. Because Christians in those days prayed with their hands crossed over their chests, he tried shaping the dough to mimic that action. They were baked to a soft bread consistency and given as a treat to children that memorized their prayers. The monk named his new treat 'pretiola' - a Latin word meaning 'little reward'. [Source:Essortment.com]

Today pretzels come in all shapes and sizes and many companies experiment with flavor. Butter-flavored pretzels are favorites that have stayed in the public eye. Pretzels are great accompaniments to soups, salads, entrees and beer.

This was the first time I made pretzels myself. I remember eating pretzels first in an airport. They taste great dipped in salt or mustard. I a paired this month with Res-o-puh-leese for Taste and Create event this month. Browsing through her interesting site, I found this recipe very interesting. Being a big fan of pretzels i tried this immediately. They turned out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside! 

Here is the recipe as suggested by Kendall!

Ingredients

Active dry yeast - 2 teaspoons
Sugar - 1 teaspoon
Warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) - 1/2 cup
All-purpose flour - 2 cups
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon
Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
Hot water - 2 cups
Butter - 2 tablespoons
Kosher salt, for topping


Directions

Dissolve the yeast and the sugar in luke-warm water and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast turns the water frothy. In another bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt and add the sugar and yeast mixture.
Knead the dough until smooth, for about 7 minutes. The dough should be elastic. It need not be very smooth.
Lightly oil a large bowl and put the dough in the bowl, turning so that the dough is completely covered with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for about one hour, or until dough has doubled.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Divide the dough into 10 to 12  pieces and roll each out into a long rope of about 12 inches long. It shouldnt be too thin. Form into pretzel shape. For more pictures on shaping check this site.
Dissolve baking soda in hot water and dip the pretzels into the water mixture. Sprinkle kosher salt or desired toppings on the shaped pretzels.

Bake on a greased baking sheet for about 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter.

Serve warm!

Since this recipe is eggless and low in fat am sending this to Madhuram's Lowfat Eggless Baking event

42 comments:

  1. Wow you made them at home, congragulations.
    They really look so beautiful and so delcious.
    Wish i could pick up few from my screen.

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  2. Oh yeah...I love pretzels too...even those hard pretzels, they are great as a snack.

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  3. they look so perfect and so delicious..

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  4. Saw this in so many blogs recently...looks yummy..

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  5. Pretzels turned out prefect for u Divya...Send me some yaar!

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  6. They looks so soft and fluffy and nice color too looks so yum Divya

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  7. Looks very nice, there is nothing to beat the aroma and taste of home baked goodie. Beautiful click.

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  8. Pretzels look perfect.. and with only 3tbsp of fat, its low-fat too. may be you can send this to Madhuram for her low-fat baking event.

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  9. hmmmmmmmm wow these look so good.You got the perfect shape and color on the pretzels.

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  10. Absolutely gorgeous pretzels, Divya! I love the ones you get in the malls here. Should try making them sometime soon. :)

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  11. Excellent looking pretzels, perfect!

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  12. Good Job Divya!!They are perfect!!

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  13. Wow perfect pretzels!! Looks yummy!

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  14. I love soft pretzels.. i tried them once before but didn't come out as soft as I had expected - must try this version. Nice one Divya.

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  15. Nice recipe... will try it out... I am sure the pretzels must be tasting really great..

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  16. Nice recipe ...:)..Thanks for sharing ,..looks soo yummy !!

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  17. you made pretzels at home? kalakara po... looks cute and yummy

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  18. wow!!! nice presentation and wonderful recipe.....will give a try ....

    PS: did u get my entry for your event, emailed u couple of days ago....

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  19. achooo..they are such cutie pies da..I am so tempted to try them..yum yum..:)

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  20. Nothing better than a warm batch of pretzels straight from the oven!!

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  21. Nice shape....pretzels at home :O .... wonderful try... looks so great.

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  22. Lovely work and they are beautiful divya.. its our fav too..parcel me some

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  23. When I was coming to the US,in the flight pretzels was served for snacks...thats when my husband said u will find this everywhere....n thats so true.Any place u go...pretzels are available.You made it at home???? thats really great.They look wonderful.Ineresting facts..i was amazed to know how old these are.thanks for sharing divya!

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  24. Perfect looking pretzels Dhivya...they look delicious with the sprinke of salt on top :)

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  25. the pretzels look v cute , n you made it look very simple to make these

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  26. Pretzels look absolutely perfect !

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  27. Lovely pretzels! Too tempting snack!

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  28. Oh wow, some serious yumminess going on there!

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  29. Super Divya. Those pretzels look very cute. Thank you very much for sending it to the event.

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  30. I tried to make these as posted here, and they didn't turn out at all... the dough was incredibly dry and you said to add sugar twice but only put it in the ingredients list once. So I went to the link you have to the original recipe. The original is different than yours. I wasn't sure if you was aware of that.

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  31. Super duper post Divya, pretzels looks great :)). Hope you enjoyed Mint-Methi Rice!!!

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  32. So Sweet..they look adorable. And they're eggless and low fat - perfect!

    And I love your new layout. Really neat.

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  33. Just tried baking these...the recipe is definitely off. The dough was extremely dry. I ended up more than doubling the amount of water in the recipe. Also, sugar is listed only once in the ingredients, but twice in the directions.

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  34. @ Anonymous, Sorry I am not sure where the recipe went wrong for you. It was not my own recipe I had tried this from someone else's blog as I had mentioned and it turned out well for her and for me. Sorry that you did not like it.

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  35. Great looking pretzels... have been eyeing them for days... bookmarked!

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Thanks for dropping by my blog and rendering your valuable comments..Hope you had a nice time reading my recipes..Thanks for your encouragement..