Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Whole Wheat Homemade Pretzels


I've been meaning to try making pretzels for a long time, and one of my goals for spring break was to try them. They turned out great... although I wasn't so sure half way through because my dough and pretzels looked so different from Laura's photos! Frog Prince liked them too... I conjecture, because I went away to grab my camera and snap a photo, and this is what I found...


Whole Wheat Pretzels - Laura from Heavenly Homemakers (slightly modified by Snow White)

Whole Recipe (about 24 medium sized pretzels)1 C water
2 T yeast
2 tsp. honey
2 1/2 C milk
1 stick butter
4 tsp. salt
1/2 C honey
8 C whole wheat flour
Butter and salt for top


Half Batch (about 12 medium sized pretzels)
1/2 C water
1 T yeast
1 tsp. honey
1 1/4 C milk
4 T butter (half a stick butter)
2 tsp. salt
1/4 C honey (I used just under 1/4 C)
4 C flour (I used 1:1 whole wheat:white flour)
Butter and salt for top (I used sea salt)

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast and honey. Stir together and set aside, while you prepare the next step.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add honey, salt and milk to the mix. Heat to 120 degrees.

Pour mixture into yeast mix and stir to combine.

Stir in flour, 2 C at a time.


Knead for 5-10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.

Spray a large bowl with cooking spray, place dough in bowl, cover and allow to rise for 1-2 hours (in a cool kitchen, mine took closer to 2 hours). Don't worry if dough doesn't rise as much as bread would... (that made me think I had messed something up, but it turned out fine).

Tear off a hunk of dough, about the size of a baseball (or your fist, for those of you who don't have a hubby who used to be a baseball pitcher).

Roll dough into a long "snake" (that's what I used to do with play dough when I was a little tyke).


Cross dough over to make a loop.

Then, cross again.

Take the ends and fold them down to form a pretzel.

Place pretzels on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Take sea salt and grind it over the top of the dough pretzels.

They are not all perfect... but they are good :)

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes (the original recipe said 20, but I found mine took longer), until pretzels are lightly browned.



Enjoy warm with melted butter and additional salt, if desired. Laura also says they freeze and warm up in the microwave wonderfully.

Linked to: Ingredient Spotlight

5 comments:

  1. Look good, but I'll have to wait 11 weeks before trying!

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  2. I'm definately putting you under my favorite cooking sites...your recipes look amazing.

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  3. I made these and I think we did not get the dough as thin as we should or something as they were more like tasty puffy rolls!!! Good, but not pretzels!

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  4. MMMM! Yum! I just made these last night. Mine almost taste like a sugar free cinnamon bun, but I really don't mind because they are delicous. I brushed them with honey after baking and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. For someone who is just beginning to give up refined sugar, this recipe is a life saver! Plus, I can give it to my 16 month old and not feel guilty :) Thanks.

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  5. Very tasty! Like Martha, mine looked more like bread rolls. You need to get the dough "snake" REALLY thin before shaping the pretzels if you want them to look like a pretzel. TIPS: If you don't have a thermometer, heat the butter mixture just past the point where it's comfortably warm to the touch. I used wax paper rather than parchment, but recommend covering it with cooking spray first. I didn't and had trouble getting some of the pretzels off.

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Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you; especially how you're finding JOY in your kitchen.

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