Another Carb-tastic blog entry....

I've noticed a pattern with my last few blog posts - CARBS! Oh well, I love carbs and make no bones about it, one of these days I'll actually post something besides cookies, muffins, and breads but for now I'm still on this carb merry-go-round.

This past weekend I tried my hand at another recipe from my Food Network Magazine - "Almost-Famous Soft Pretzels" which the article touted were the closest you would get to an Auntie Anne pretzel! I just had to try it.

All I can say is, wow, these came out pretty darn good! My husband and I don't like salt on the outside of our pretzels so I skipped that step and dramatically reduced the butter on top of the pretzels after baking and they were still great. I just wish I had better pretzel making technique (example below) but hey, they could have come out looking worse I figure, plus the taste made up it anyway!


Almost-Famous Soft Pretzels
(from Food Network Magazine)

1 cup milk
1 pkg active dry yeast
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups AP flour, plus more for kneading
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
1 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons coarse salt

Warm the milk in a saucepan until it's about 110 degrees; pour into a medium bowl and sprinkle in yeast. Let the yeast sofen, about 2 minutes; stir in brown sugar and 1 cup flour with wooden spoon. Dice 2 tablespoons butter and soften; stir into the mix. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour and fine salt to make a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and grease large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate t, then turn out ontolightly floured surface. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms fo your hands into a 30 inch rope holing the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a pretzel shape.

Dissolve 3 baking soda in 3 cups of warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution then arrange onthe prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake until golden 10-12 minutes.

Melt the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter in a shallow dish. Dip hot pretzels in the butter, turning to coat; place on a warm wire rack to let excess butter drip of. Serve the pretzels warm.