Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels
I have gone through life with a, some would say, irrational fear of making things involving ‘yeast’, ‘rising’, and ‘more than 30 minutes of preparation time’. But if I want things like home-made bread or whole wheat soft pretzels (which may or may not exist in the world of manufactured goods anyway) then there’s just no choice. Turns out—the rising of bread is kind of fun to witness. So atleast there's some small entertainment in addition to the actual snack.
Make these on a Sunday afternoon and make sure you've got mustard in the house.
Prep Time: About 2 Hours (mostly inactive)
Cooking Time: 15 Minutes
Yield: About 12 Pretzels
Ingredients:
1 Cup Warm Water
1 Package of Dry Active Yeast
1 ½ Cups + 1 ¼ Cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3/4 Tsp Sea Salt
3 Cups Water
2 Tbsp Baking Soda
Course Sea Salt
In a large bowl, stir yeast into warm water and set aside to dissolve for ten minutes. Stir in olive oil, sea salt and 1 ½ cups of flour. Once well combined, add remaining flour and knead for about 5 minutes. Place into a dry bowl, lightly cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hour.
Divide dough into 12 equal portions and roll into balls. Roll each ball into a long snake-y piece and form into pretzel shapes. (see below) Let them rise for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Bring water and baking soda to a simmer in a deep pan. Simmer pretzels in simmering water for about one minute, flipping halfway through. Place pretzels on a lightly greased baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, (you’re almost done now) and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Eat many of them warm because that's when they taste the best.
Categories: Snacks,Dairy Free or Optional,Soy Free or Optional,Egg Free or Optional,Nut Free or Optional,Comfort Food Revamp
These looks just lovely. And healthy too! How can you go wrong with whole grains and olive oil. I too have a irrational fear of yeast and rising. So did these ease your fear? Were they hard to make?
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Yes, they did ease my fear by turning out like real, actual pretzels! That was exciting.
As far as difficulty, really not difficult and making pretzel shapes is kind of fun (and not something you get to do everyday). They did, however, take longer than most things that I make-- which makes them a definite weekend project.
The moral: Just go ahead and do it. Sometimes the amount of pride you feel in your completed snack is directly related to the amount of time spent working on it. Or whatever. You know what I'm saying
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I want to share a great place where I always shop for organic and gluten free products. Whole And Natural. They have lots of great stuff.
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Just looking for a WW recipe and love this. I think you make it sound so easy and doable. Will try these for my soft pretzel-loving midnight snack guy. I was going to try freezing the finished product so one at a time can be reheated in the oven. Do we need to thaw completely before reheating do you think? I'd love to give him a whole wheat snack that can't be found in stores. Thanks!
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that's a great idea-- because they're kind of time-consuming to make and who feels like eating that many pretzels in a row? nobody.
i havn't tried freezing the pretzels, but i keep my bread frozen and stick it straight in the oven to toast without thawing. i'm sure the pretzels will be fine doing the same thing. let me know how he likes them and make sure you've got mustard in the house! we ran out of mustard halfway through them and it was a REAL bummer.
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did you try boiling them? i've made others before and you boil them first to make them a bit chewy, like bagels.. i just wondered if it would have the same effect with the wheat flour.
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I just made these tonight and they are very yummy! I added a tbsp of honey in with the yeast and water to make it all a little sweeter, and we sprinkled half of them with Kosher salt and then we sprinkled some in cinnamon sugar, and two of them we rolled into rectangles and then put a 1/2 ounce cheese stick in and rolled it up and then sprinkled those with a little salt...and they were all delicious! I'm sure they'll all be gone by tomorrow and it's just the two of us eating them...the baby doesn't get to have wheat yet. And these weren't really that difficult to make...lots of fun to roll out and shape!
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i LOVE that you did all of that fun stuff with the recipe. mmm....cheese-filled....
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I just made these and they are great! This is only my second time using yeast on my own, I used to be very scared of it for some reason, but no more. Oh and I coated the bottoms of them in corn meal for a little extra crunch and am eating them with grainy, stone ground mustard. These are the best. I look forward to trying more of your recipes.
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