Whole Grain Pretzels
from the King Arthur Whole Grains cookbook
Dough
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup water, at room temp
1 T soft butter
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp barley malt extract (syrup or dried) - I used molasses this time
Water bath
8 cups water (I used 10)
2 T baking soda
Glaze
1 egg beaten w/ 1 T water and a pinch of salt
Kosher salt and/or seeds for topping
Mix the whole wheat flour w/ the cup of water and let sit, covered, for 20 minutes. Stir in butter, bread flour, salt, yeast, and barley malt extract (I did this with the dough hook on my stand mixer). Knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1.5 hrs.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease two baking sheets or line w/ parchment paper. Make the water bath by pouring the water in a wide pot and placing it over high heat to boil.
Divide the dough into eight equal pieces and roll into ropes about 1/2 inch thick (hard to get them this thin, in my experience). The cookbook suggests letting the ropes rest halfway through rolling, so maybe that would help... I didn't have time for that! Shape into pretzels.
When water is boiling, turn it down to a simmer and add the baking soda. Carefully drop the pretzels into the simmering water, cooking about three at a time. The pretzels will expand quickly and dramatically. let cook about a minute or two, then use a slotted spatula or spoon to transfer to the baking sheets.
Brush each pretzel with egg wash and sprinkle with salt and/or seeds. Bake about 12-15 minutes until well-browned. Best when served warm.
Caroline helped me roll and shape them while Cecilia was napping... and then both girls sprinkled on coarse salt after the pretzels took their "bath" in boiling water before going into the oven.
2 comments:
I'd love the recipe. We had a great pretzel recipe when we were little, it didn't have to be boiled but they tasted just like the doughy pretzels. It was whole wheat too and they were eaier to shpae, wish I had that cookbook still!
Sure, I'll add the recipe to the post!
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