Baking bread, whether as an occupation or as a hobby, is extremely satisfying. Bakers have almost complete control over their bread, requiring little more than some very simple ingredients, time and the willingness to get his or her hands a little messy.
Pretzel bread is not quite a simple as flat bread or dinner rolls, but the loaves come out of the oven with a deep, brown pretzel crust and a slightly sweet, tender center. This particular recipe should be treated as a base to which other ingredients may be added. Cinnamon and extra brown sugar can create a sweet pretzel, or garlic and other spices can create a more savory pretzel. The loaves can be baked into mini-loaves, sandwich loaves or just cut into chunks and served as a snack. If you come up with something good, leave it in the comments.
But now for the bread.
Makes : 2 small loaves.
Prep time : 3-4 hours (including rise time).
Ingredients :
1 packet dry active yeast, or 2 tsp.
2 cups warm (110F) water.
1 tbsp dark brown sugar.
1 tbsp honey.
2 tbsp half-and-half.
3 tbsp unsalted butter.
1.5 tsp salt.
3-3.5 cups bread flour.
3 tbsp baking soda.
Pretzel bread is not quite a simple as flat bread or dinner rolls, but the loaves come out of the oven with a deep, brown pretzel crust and a slightly sweet, tender center. This particular recipe should be treated as a base to which other ingredients may be added. Cinnamon and extra brown sugar can create a sweet pretzel, or garlic and other spices can create a more savory pretzel. The loaves can be baked into mini-loaves, sandwich loaves or just cut into chunks and served as a snack. If you come up with something good, leave it in the comments.
But now for the bread.
Makes : 2 small loaves.
Prep time : 3-4 hours (including rise time).
Ingredients :
1 packet dry active yeast, or 2 tsp.
2 cups warm (110F) water.
1 tbsp dark brown sugar.
1 tbsp honey.
2 tbsp half-and-half.
3 tbsp unsalted butter.
1.5 tsp salt.
3-3.5 cups bread flour.
3 tbsp baking soda.
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Signing UpStep 1: Preparing the dough
Combine the warm water, dark brown sugar and honey in a mixing bowl and stir. Add the yeast carefully to avoid clumps. Stir again and let the mixture stand until the surface of the water starts to turn a light brown as the yeast begins to foam. It should take no longer than a few minutes. If your water is too hot, too cold or the yeast is bad it will not foam. It's a lot easier to deal with bad yeast or water early on.
Also, note that this recipe uses dry active yeast. fresh yeast or fast/self rising yeast can be used, but be sure to read the instructions on the packet to adapt the recipe.
The yeast, when added to the warm, sugary water, starts to consume the sugar and multiply like crazy. They are what gives the bread its ability to rise and expand later on. While the yeast is started to get going, melt the 3 tbsp of unsalted butter, then add the half-and-half. By adding the half and half to the melted butter, the half and half warms up a bit if it is straight out of the fridge. Add the tsp of salt to the yeast mixture with the butter and half and half then stir well.
Also, note that this recipe uses dry active yeast. fresh yeast or fast/self rising yeast can be used, but be sure to read the instructions on the packet to adapt the recipe.
The yeast, when added to the warm, sugary water, starts to consume the sugar and multiply like crazy. They are what gives the bread its ability to rise and expand later on. While the yeast is started to get going, melt the 3 tbsp of unsalted butter, then add the half-and-half. By adding the half and half to the melted butter, the half and half warms up a bit if it is straight out of the fridge. Add the tsp of salt to the yeast mixture with the butter and half and half then stir well.
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The dark lines in the middle of one of the loaves is the soda water mixture, it soaked into a fold and didn't bake out completely.
With two cups water and three cups flour you end up with a nice flour paste, no were near a dough. I had to add another 2 1/2 cups of flour to get a dough.
Instead of two small loves I ended up with six about 5 to 6 inches in diameter and an inch and a half tall.
They taste great. I will make this again with either 1 cup water and about 3 cups flour or the 2 cups water and about 6 cups flour.
You should change the ingredient list one way or the other.
http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/532
For the record, I live at 5400+ ft elevation and had no problems whatsoever. I did add a little extra flour when kneading, but other than that, I followed the measurements given to the letter! Thanks :D
See:
http://www.suite101.com/content/high-altitude-baking-tips-a44347
http://kitchensavvy.typepad.com/journal/2005/02/altitude_cookin.html#ixzz1KAF54bj5
Also, does anyone know how to go about getting "bakers ammonia"?
This keeps the dough handling gentle and thus less dense. After brushing the breads, pretzels... shove them into the oven immediately. The heat in the oven speeds up the reaction, like submerging it in boiling soda water.
The submerging method works of course, but it's traditionally used when making bagels.(without soda of course)
Brushing with lye would be even better, with this method you only need minute amounts.
Nice instructable, two things i like to add.
Yeast doesn't like fat or salt, so it would be better to add the fatty components later in the mixing process. With the salt, it may not be practical to add it too late, because it could be unevenly distributed in the dough. But i would add it to the second cup of flour.
Happy baking
With respect to the lye bath, I would suggest giving it a try if you can do it safely. I didn't mention lye because I wanted to limit it to things I figured another might have. The lye will give you a much better crust, but baking soda still does a good job.
A question from abroad: what is half-and-half? What does it contain? Any other option?
Is Half and Half some type of milk?
So, yes, a type of milk. In the US, we usually use it in coffee.
(well I don't know if the ingredients are the same )
I could die for them :-)
I make homemade pretzels and pretzel rolls all the time with lye and I think the difference is dramatic- baking soda pretzels taste a little baking soda-y, but the lye pretzels have a stronger and more authentic flavor. For those wanting to cook with lye, you can source food grade lye pellets on Amazon. Search for "food grade lye."
My favorite ratio for lye is about 1.5 Tablespoons pellets per liter of water. Add the pellets to the water, not water to the pellets. Also, DON'T BOIL this mixture- when you use a lye bath you don't need the heat to catalyze the reaction: a cold to room temperature bath will do the trick!
After bathing your dough, just pour the lye solution down your slowest drain. I usually pour it down the shower drain- lye is Drano, and can help break up the clogs.
Have fun, be careful and Bon appetit!
I do a double batch of dough and divide it into 6 loaves for baking. I found brushing them with melted butter pre-and-post cooking is delicious. I tried toppings other than salt today, and they turned out great too - garlic powder and herb mix (the "pizza seasoning" that comes with many spice racks) was very savory and nice; brown sugar and cinnamon (with extra butter on top of the brown sugar pre-cooking) was quite a treat! It is a really good base to experiment with.
Thanks for the great 'ible!