welcome friends welcome back to the kitchen today we're gonna make pretzels
something that I really enjoy eating soft pretzels that I enjoy making soft pretzels
that I'm a bit of a disaster at making but I keep trying because I really enjoy
the process and I enjoy eating pretzels so into the bowl of our stand mixer I put
some bread flour and next in I'm gonna put some rye flour now you don't have to
use rye flour if you don't want to buy it you could use all bread flour I find
that the rye flour adds flavor that I really like in pretzels next in is just
a tiny little bit of brown sugar and you don't want too much you just want a
little little bit just to give a tiny bit of flavor next in is some salt and
at this point I'm just going to take a spoon and give that a stir mix the salt
in because the next ingredient is instant dry yeast and yeah I hear your
grandmother always told you that salt kills the east and you should keep them
separate technically yes salt kills yeast but in the concentrations found in
most typical bread recipes it's not a problem and in fact as much as salt
kills yeast so does sugar in a high enough concentration sugar will also
kill yeast and I see people throw and sugar at East all the time next in is
some butter I put my butter in at the beginning of the process a lot of people
will put it in half way through after they've already mixed it together and
they're just starting the kneading process sticking the butter in you could
do it either way whichever way makes you feel the most comfortable next in is
diastatic malt powder now sounds fancy it certainly does sound fancy but it is
just flour made from malted barley and I'll explain that so barley is a grain
barley is usually malted which means they sprout it so they get the barley
wet they allow it to sprout as soon as it sprouts they put it out on a floor
and they dry it and what's happening there is when the barley
routes it starts an enzymatic action inside the seed and the sprout where the
enzymes start to turn complex sugars into simple sugars that the sprout can
use to grow what humans figured out a long time ago was that this enzyme that
converts those starches and complex sugars into simple sugars is also really
great for feeding yeast because yeast eats sugar but yeast eats very specific
types or wait the east' that we use for baking and brewing and distilling use
very specific types of simple sugars and not complex sugars so the malt powder
what it's going to do in this instance is the diastatic part means that this is
really complicated so I'm geeking out I'm gonna geek out for a moment excuse
me while I've gig doubt the diastatic part of diastatic malt powder means that
those enzymes are still active they're available to use so what's going to
happen is in here when I put the water in the enzymes are going to start
working to convert the complex starches and complex sugars of the flour to
simple sugars that the yeast can use
which is really long-winded to say winded way to say that the yeast is
going to be able to better consume the flour it's going to work harder and
we're going to get better flavor because the yeast is happy and happy yeast gives
you good flavor that's something that that I learned the hard way to brewing
beer okay put the mixer hook in turn the mixer on low and just bring this
together into a kind of ragged ball on low before we turn it up a little bit to
do the kneading so a bit of a ragged ball now and we're gonna turn it up just
a little bit and start kneading
so I think this mixers just about done this is like the third or fourth
KitchenAid stand mixer that's broken on me in the last couple of months I just
tore down one of these one of the silver ones and filmed it and I'm just waiting
for parts to come in so that I can put it back together so I don't know if this
video will be up first or if the repair video will be up first but if you've
ever wondered how to fix one of these I've got a video coming out shortly
about that so take a look for it so I'm gonna take this out and I'm gonna put it
out on the bench and I'm gonna need it just a little bit by hand just to see
where we're at and even if the mixer hadn't given up this is a step that I
always like to do anyway just to kind of get a feel for the dough and see where
we're at with the kneading process and you know what I think this now hesitate
to say that this is perfect but it feels really nice so I'm gonna make it into a
ball with a nice smooth elastic surface that looks pretty good and the same bowl
that we mix it in you don't need to wash it out you don't need to put any oil in
it you don't need to do anything to it you can just put the ball back in cover
it in a tea towel and we're gonna let this rest for 15 to 20 minutes this
isn't necessarily a rise the yeast will start to act this is more about letting
the gluten relax so that when we move on to the next step it's not going to pull
back on itself so see in about 20 minutes
okay time is up dough has rested now you could have put
plastic wrap over this and stuck it in the fridge for day day and a half and
what that would do is the dough would very slowly rise but it would develop an
incredible amount of flavor and since everything that you do in the kitchen
should be about developing flavor if you have the time I would highly recommend
doing that it is it is a great way to make a better textured and better
flavored dough but of course you know I didn't really have time today so I
didn't do it the goal now is I want to get this into a rectangle or as close to
a rectangle as I possibly can so we can portion it out to start the shaping
process now my goal is to make a dozen pretzels and generally I'm trying to get
to about 110 grams per pretzel I weighed my dough today I have thirteen
hundred and fifty six grams of dough which means each pretzel be 113 grams so
I'm off by a little bit which isn't too bad actually that's I'm gonna call that
a win so I'm gonna cut this into twelve pieces and see where we can get and you
don't have to be too spread sheet II or pedantic about it you know as long as
you're close eyeballing is good enough now because I flattened it into a
rectangle and cut them out I've got pieces of dough that are kind of
rectangular and you almost want to leave them in this shape you want to kind of
roll them just a little bit so that you start to get that rope feeling but for
the most part these are pretty good and I'm just going to put them onto
parchment lined baking sheet and I've got one here that's already done cover
it with a piece of tea towel and leave it to rest for 10-15 minutes that lets
the gluten relax and then the actual shaping should be a whole lot easier
alternately one of the things that I've seen people do is this they'll flatten
it out and then fold in and pinch down like you were making a loaf of
read and maybe fold it over like three times pinch it down and then you've got
this rope and that's what you set aside to let rest for the next ten minutes and
you'll get better over time well that's the theory anyway I don't know that I
have actually gotten better over time and roll it and pinch it roll it and
pinch it roll it and pinch it okay I'm gonna keep doing this let it rest
for 10-15 minutes and then I will see you for the next stage this is the part
where it usually goes completely wrong for me so don't feel bad don't give up
just keep trying put your rope down on your counter you don't want any flour on
your bench you want it to stick to your countertop a little bit and that
resistance will help you draw it out hands on either side leave a section in
the middle that you don't touch and you're never gonna roll and just roll it
out and then come back to the center same sort of thing and just do it again
and you can flip the center pretty violently back and forth and that's
gonna help you get the shape that you want and it's gonna draw back a little
bit when you let go it's gonna snap back in don't worry about that too much if it
snaps back more than say a third of the way in you haven't let your dough rest
long enough let it rest a little bit longer so I get it out this far and then
I'm gonna do it all in the bench because I find that easier than watching the
twirly thing make it into a you draw it over once draw it over twice and then
pull these back press it down and move to a sheet tray okay here we go let's
try this one so into the center put your hands in put your thumbs in leave a
space in the middle where you're not touching and you roll and you pull your
hands apart and then come back into the center and
do it again and just keep pulling your hands apart
you want it to taper down at the ends
and the thing that I find most difficult is getting my pull even on both sides of
the center part then I bring it into a you cross over cross over bring it back
pinch it down and you've kind of got a pretzel now I put a little bit of
plastic wrap or cling wrap over top of the tray with the finished ones so they
don't dry out and I've got a stack of cookies here have you checked out our
killer infused cookie recipe these chocolate chip cookies are absolutely
incredible fantastic cookies check out that recipe so I've got some here with
some tea because often this takes me a lot longer than I thought it would now
I've got I've got a few more to go so I'm just going to keep shaping my
pretzels
now I'm just gonna chew it and so these will sit out on the counter for about a
half an hour and then once that half hour is up I'm gonna stick them into the
fridge for at least an hour but they could stay in the fridge overnight if
you wanted to leave them that long and that would give the dough time to
develop some really great flavors but I need these today so half hour on the
counter hour in the fridge and then we'll come on back and we will dip them
in the lye solution until then I'm gonna have a cookie while I wait the next step
is to dip the pretzels into a solution of water and sodium hydroxide or lye
this is the traditional method for making pretzels and I don't want to
overstate the dangers of what you're doing here but you do have to be
cautious you need to wear gloves you need to be very aware that this is a
highly alkaline solution incredibly caustic and if you get it on yourself
you could get a chemical burn but this is the traditional way of making
pretzels and so you do need to be careful where your gloves be very aware
of what this liquid is doing don't fear it respect it that's very important a
lot of people are going to be writing in the comments that they just use baking
soda because they're too afraid to use lye or they don't know what lie is or
they're terrified of it I've never found that baking soda does what I want it to
do um you don't get a nice crust on the outside you don't get a really nice
Brown so I I've given up on it other people will say if you take the baking
soda and you put it on a baking pan and you bake it for a couple of hours it
changes the alkalinity and it does and you do get a fairly nice
exterior but still not fantastic still not happy with it so you know why why
Balkan tradition just do what is traditionally done and this stuff is
fairly easy to get I got mine from modernist pantry order it online now the
pretzels don't have to be in the water very long five seconds on each time just
enough to soak them a little bit and then they can go back on the baking tray
make sure you have parchment paper or a Silpat on your baking tray it would
absolutely be best if you used a plastic container or stainless steel and not
glass and the reason for that is glass can etch which would make it weaker and
you don't want that to happen I'm doing it in glass just so it's easier for you
to see what's going on but truthfully plastic or stainless steel is the way to
go so second tray and then while they're still damp sprinkle on some salt or
other toppings whatever topping you want to put on I mean they're your pretzels
make them the way you want but a nice big flaky salt is what I like these will
go into a preheated 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes to bake and you know
they're done when they reach an internal temperature of 205 degrees Fahrenheit
okay into the oven
hey Jules thank you it's time for breads our pretzels so some of them the shape I
was gonna say it's not so great I mean yeah what every time skills are our new
practice yes that's okay and because you don't make them if I made them every day
down at my job at the mall yeah it would be yeah but so some of them are pretty
good some of them you know no really in the end I don't care how they look how
they taste and so one of the things I really like
about them is that some edges are crispy and some are really nice and bready I
can hear the crispy just listen to you mmm pretzel mm hmm hmm right away so
dipping it in the lye is what gives you this nice glossy brown color okay
but it's also what gives you that flavor that pretzel flavor soon as you put it
in your mouth that time yeah I mean you're not gonna get that hangs out the
right word though no but it's it's kind of I know which I know what you're
talking about the word either but mm-hmm so you're dipping it in an alkali which
is the exact opposite of an acid yes but you get the same sort of effect mm-hmm
you're not gonna get that with baking soda you're not gonna get that with
baking soda that's baked your the only way you're gonna get it really is with
lye or you might try Ken suey
which is something that the Japanese use for making ramen but then you mix it
with the salt yeah lies lies the way to go these are really good so I mean dip
them in butter you want to dip in butter a lot of
people dip them and mustard have them with a jug of beer mmm whatever brings
of joy the inside of the puffy parts really good isn't it mm-hmm
thanks for stopping by see you again soon
you