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| Clockwise starting at the upper left corner: Cinnamon-Sugar, Sea Salt, Cinnamon-Sugar, Poppy Seed/Sea Salt |
A survey among the ABC bakers, resulted in the following... In the year 2014, we'll continue to bake from the King Arthur Flour website! The 2013 KAF recipes were such a big hit, that we'd like to continue the KAF fun for one more year. So, if you are a KAF fan or just like to bake (and don't want to purchase a book), come join us! :o)
If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.
The dough for these pretzels is really simple: flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and water. I replaced a 1/4 of the flour with KAF's White Whole Wheat flour (increased the water amount by 1 oz), and added 25 gr of ground golden flax seeds. Into the bread machine they went until the Dough cycle was completely finished (this includes the first rise because I didn't want to dirty a plastic bag or yet another bowl for the first rise).
Considering how sticky the dough was, I was surprised that after its first rise, the dough was very manageable. I divvied up the dough into 8 pieces and shaped my pretzels. It was really handy to have step-by-step pictures on the KAF blog to follow for this. Each pretzel bathed in the baking soda water for 2 minutes.
After a quick rest, they went into a hot oven for 8 minutes.
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| Soft and chewy interior. Bon appetit! |
Final thoughts/tips:
- I had fun making these pretzels. Unfortunately, the somewhat dense and chewy interior didn't quite work for me. They tasted OK, but I would have preferred the exterior to be a bit more crisp. I also didn't like the pale look of my pretzels. The pictures on the KAF blog and website looked much more golden brown.
- Hubby and I shared two warm pretzels (one savory and one sweet). He felt the same way about them. He gave them a 7 out of 10 rating.
- I froze the leftovers. I'm sure they'd be fine toasted with a cup of soup.
- My changes: replace 1/4 of the flour with KAF White WW flour, add 1 oz water, reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp (since there will be more sprinkled on top), add 25 gr of ground flax seeds.
- You can find the original recipe HERE.
- Don't forget to check out what the ABC bakers thought of this recipe.
I thought about reducing the salt in the dough, but really didn't know what I was getting into so I just followed the recipe. They were pretty salty! One of my friends asked about mustard -- a standard -- but I can't imagine putting anything salty on them.
ReplyDeleteO yes I forgot that I reduced the salt too ( have to add that to my post). I can understand the way you felt about these, I don't think I will be making these again either.
ReplyDeleteWaiting eagerly to find out what we are baking next year. Agree about the salt. I did sprinkle a lot less on top.
ReplyDeleteYour looks great! My family loved these and they were so much fun to make, they'll definitely be repeated. Thanks for the pick, Hanaâ.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm in Mexico right now, I can't participate in this month's challenge, but I made pretzels (Laugenbrötchen) before, from a different recipe, and they turned out pretty nice (and not too salty).
ReplyDeleteYou can prevent them from soaking up too much salt by putting them in the fridge before their soda bath, and then dipping them only very briefly into the water - 2 minutes is much too long.
I think maybe the reason I got such good color on mine was because I didn't just leave them sitting in the water -- I kept spooning it over and sloshing it around. I baked them only 8 minutes
ReplyDeleteI was surprised at how manageable the dough was after the first rise too! Mine were great the next day out of the toaster.
ReplyDelete