Gbessay Sabi Kuk! Soft Pretzels

Post by Lara

29 Jan 2012

Perhaps it’s the culture shock or perhaps it’s the heat, but odd food thoughts like to jump in and out of my head these days. I find myself thinking of walking down the cereal aisle at Kroger, sipping peppermint milkshakes at Steak ‘n Shake, or enjoying a coney and root beer at Skyline.  One of those odd ideas stuck around for a while— I really wanted a pretzel. A nice, salty, slathered-in-mustard pretzel like they sell at baseball games. Or maybe one with butter and cinnamon sugar like the ones in the mall. The possibilities abounded, and the odd thought finally became persistent enough that I devoted a few minutes of my precious internet time to look up a soft pretzel recipe.  The recipe below is adapted from Alton Brown’s pretzel recipe and worked surprisingly well in our little outdoor kitchen over a charcoal fire.  I’m sure it’ll go even smoother in a fancy American kitchen with nice amenities like a sink and a real mixing bowl and stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.  One word of advice—don’t skimp on the baking soda in the boiling water. I’m pretty sure this is what gives it a real pretzel taste.

Salone Soft Pretzels [Adapted from Alton Brown’s soft pretzel recipe]

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 4 ½ to 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 5 cups water
• 1/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water (optional)
• Pretzel salt (optional—we just sprinkled regular salt on top)

Directions

Combine the water, sugar and salt in a large bowl [the original recipe says to combine them in the bowl of a stand mixer] and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and stir until combined, then knead in the bowl until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bow.  Knead for 5 minutes more [if using a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment and mix on low speed until dough pulls away from the bowl, then change to medium speed and knead for approximately 4 to 5 minutes]. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, a lid, or a towel and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Brush 2 half-sheet pans with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 5 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in pot.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into equal pieces. Make whatever shape you want with them.  We chose to make pretzel “sticks” for simplicity’s sake.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture if you are using it and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Pretzels cook best if you turn them over halfway through baking.  Cool at least 5 minutes before serving. 

Salone serving suggestions: serve with mustard (Le 8000 at Sabbagh in Bo), melted “butter” and cinnamon sugar, or Laughing Cow cheese.

Our custom-built oven complete with a metal door that we have to lock in our house at night, for the thieves.