Saturday, January 31, 2009

Homemade soft pretzels, seriously.

I've had a busy last couple weeks, with very little down time for all my favorite home activities like cooking and sewing. So this morning, instead of getting work done that needs doing, I used a free hour to make soft pretzels from scratch! I've been wanting to do this for several months now, so perhaps its best just to go and do it so I can remove that desire from my brain and make space for other things. I used Alton Brown's pretzel recipe since it had such great reviews, and because he always seems to know what he's doing. Let me tell you, they turned out great, and actually didn't require as much effort and time as you might guess. They came out of the oven about an hour ago, and I've already had three... I didn't use pretzel salt on these, since I always pick it off anyway. I instead sprinkled regular salt over the top, which worked out quite well. The lovely picture above is brought to you in part by my new camera. So far I'm impressed!

5 comments:

Teresa said...

Very cool! I'm inspired. There used to be the best pretzel place near my house, and unfortunately a couple years ago it closed down. I think it's time I take it upon myself to fill the pretzelly void in my diet!

ulli said...

warm, home made pretzels! i am coming over right NOW!

Anonymous said...

I've tried to make soft pretzels before, but I can't ever seem to get them to turn that brown color! Any suggestions on how to get that? Do I need to put the rack in a certain position in the oven?

Meghan said...

Hi Amy,

I followed alton brown's recipe pretty much to the letter. I think most of the brown color comes from the egg yolk wash that is brushed on top. I had two pans of pretzels going at once and both got nicely brown. Hope that helps!

meghan

Anonymous said...

These look wonderfull! Do they ship well to say Richmond? Also the picture quality is awesome. Have fun with that new camera!