Bonjour my friends, I’m Frankie and welcome to Club Foody! I always enjoyed diverse cuisines but there's one
that I cook more since I met David who's now my husband... German food! With my French touch,
I recreated many classic German recipes such as Stollen, Potato Salad, Schnitzel, Plum Cake and many more.
In this video, I'll be making another classic one... In today's episode, I'll show you how to make my Homemade Pretzels!
I love this delicious snack and with Oktoberfest coming up this weekend, what a nice way to highlight this event
by making some. You'll be surprised how moist and tasty they are... So my friends, let’s get cooking!
In the bowl of a stand mixer, we'll add active dry yeast, lukewarm water between 105-110ºF - if you go hotter,
you'll kill the yeast - and then honey... yeast loves sugar. We'll give a good stir and let it sit for 10 minutes.
So later on... As you can see, the yeast is alive then we'll add some butter and ground sea salt.
Now when it comes to flour, we'll add 1 1/2 cups of it and keep 1/2 cup on the side and you'll see why in a few seconds.
With the dough hook attachment, we'll process on speed 3 until the dough clings to the hook.
To help get to this stage, we'll add a tablespoon at the time of the reserved flour until the dough is no longer sticky.
Then we'll increase to speed 4 and knead for 3 minutes. When time is up, we'll remove the dough from the bowl,
flour our hands lightly and form a ball by pulling under... just like this. And yes, the dough will still be a little bit sticky
but very soft and malleable. Then we'll transfer it to a bowl lightly oiled and turn it to coat the ball.
We'll cover with a clean dish towel and place it in a draft-free area such as the oven... of course, with the heat off!
Now if your kitchen is very cold, you can start the oven at 350ºF for a minute or two while the yeast is fermenting.
It would be just warm, comfortable for the dough to rise for the next 1:30 hours.
When time is up, we'll remove from the oven and like other dough recipes, we'll punch it to remove the air
and prevent from over proofing. We'll transfer to a clean counter and form a ball exactly like we did earlier by pulling under.
When it's nicely formed, we'll take a bench scraper and divide it into two equal pieces by cutting it in half.
Then we'll take them and form two balls with them, cut them in half again and shape the two small pieces into balls
that way, you'll get pretty much all your pretzels the same size. You can skip this and cut it into 4 pieces right from the start
and use a scale to weigh each of them... whichever you prefer. Now, we'll put 3 on the side and work with one.
So we'll flatten it out and stretch it into a rectangular shape - it doesn't have to be perfect - and then we'll roll it tightly from
one side to the other. And when we're done with it and it's nicely rolled, we'll pinch the seam together
just like I'm doing right now. Next, we'll roll it back and forth until it reaches 12-inches long tapering to the ends.
By the way, I have no problem using a ruler when I make them. So when the length is reached, we'll set aside and
work with the others. After they're all rolled out, we'll take the first one we did which the gluten had time to relax
and do the same but this time, we'll roll it out to 24-inches. Now we'll take the ends and form a "U" shape.
Then cross them over then cross them over again and bring them back to the top of the loop, pressing the ends
down firmly into the dough so they stay in place and here's our cute pretzel! We'll place them on two baking sheets
- one is lined with silicone mat and the other one lightly greased - then we'll cover and let them rest for 30 minutes.
About 20 minutes later, we'll set the oven to 400ºF/200ºC and then we'll fill up a saucepan with water
and bring it to a boil. To this, we'll add baking soda. Now the professionals use lye also know as caustic soda solution
instead of the baking soda. I strongly suggest that you stay away from it. It's extremely corrosive and if some
splash on your skin or in your eyes, you can end up with severe burns or become blind!
The best alternative is baking soda and it's totally safe! All right 30 minutes later, the pretzels are looking fabulous!
So we'll go ahead and place one after another in the water-baking soda solution and soak for 20 seconds per side -
don't go longer than 30 seconds all right - and we'll carefully remove it and place it back on the baking sheet
Next, we'll gently brush on some egg wash - this will give a beautiful shine and a nice golden color to the pretzels.
We'll also sprinkle on some coarse sea salt before slashing the dough with a sharp knife
We'll transfer them the preheated oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
We'll remove from the heat and transfer them on a wire rack just to cool off a little, about 5 minutes.
They are amazing when they are warm! And my friends, these are our Homemade Pretzels!
Soft inside with a tender, salty exterior, this German snack is absolutely delightful! Traditionally served with a
mustard dip, these tasty pretzels will make you feel like you're at Oktoberfest in Germany!
I hope you give it a try soon and be sure to visit clubfoody.com for ingredient amounts, directions and more info…
Until next time my friends, bon appétit!