Easy Pretzels

SMALL FAN has been eating a lot of breads nowadays as his Grandma always buy him bread to eat after school as she is worried that he did not eat a proper lunch in childcare. Am getting worried about those commercial bread and how much preservatives and artificial favourings and conditioners that has been put in the bread to made them nice and soft.

So, I decided to try my hand at making some bread stuff for him, a more home-made and healthy one. Found this recipe on making Pretzels instead that looks so easy, so I decided to try making it on a lovely Saturday and let Big FAN take care of the 2 screaming kids instead.

Buttery Soft Pretzels
orginal recipe from www.allrecipes.com

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tbs of baking soda
• 1/2 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

Verdict: The pretzel turns out quite nice and SMALL FAN likes it, look at him enjoying the bread. The only think is that it gets kinda hard the next day.