Pretzels

This is a test recipe, so I can't share it. Sorry...


There wasn't any class this morning so I baked stuff. Pretzel-stuff. Ok, I wasn't that impulsive, I started it the night before, knowing I didn't have any class until 10am. Behold, the magic of dough:

...It's just a mixture of flour and water. Yeesh, and instant yeast. And then you mix it, and mix it, and get a dough. If you knead it well enough, it comes out really smooth and passes the windowpane test, etc.

(It's halfway there. I didn't take the final picture because my hands were busy.) The hint is to start off with a very wet dough and knead it well. IT WILL COME TOGETHER, you must believe in it. And work on it. It's a pretty good philosophy for life.

Then you leave it overnight and shape it into pretzels the next day. My pretzels are waay too puffy! I'll work on that next time. You basically dip it in some baking soda solution to get a gorgeous crust, like so:

And so I now have 11 mini-pretzels to be distributed to people I meet randomly. Ok, now it's 9 because of some early risers hanging around.

If you notice, the salt seems greyish. That's because it's french grey sea salt. It cost 5 usd and I regret spending money on such a luxury. On the bright side, I can use it to make really awesome french bread... You can actually taste the difference? (Or it's my mind rationalizing my purchase.) There's this intense saltiness that reminds you of the sea. You don't really need it to make bread, but it's nice for sprinkling on pretzels.