Experiment 7 - Philadelphia Soft Pretzels - The Results

For reference, here's the ingredients list.    

I'm pretty satisfied with this week's results, even though I had some worries along the way.

I had no problem finding the gluten flour, it was right there on the shelf at Kroger.  What I did puzzle over was which salt I should get.  I bought coarse sea salt, and it seemed to have been just the ticket.

The process was fairly simple.  Mixed the flours and salt together, then added the water, then the yeast mixture.  Once the dough was well mixed, it was left to rest briefly on a lightly floured board while I washed the bowl.  I then kneaded for ten minutes "until silky and resilient".  That last part was a bit of a challenge, what is "silky" in reference to dough?  Ah well, I just did 10 minutes and left it at that and put the dough ball back into a bowl to rise for an hour.

While I was waiting for the rise, I took some time to learn a bit about how to properly knead dough.  I was rather free-form in my technique, while the Joy of Cooking describes a bit more of a rigorous process.  If another doughy recipes pops up, I think I'll try manual kneading one more time, but after that I will call the Kitchen Aid mixer into service.

But back to the cooking.  Once the dough had risen, I cut it into eight pieces then was supposed to roll each into a small tube, 18 to 24 inches in length.  I had some trouble with this, finding it difficult to get that length, having the tubes break apart, not being able to have "tubes" of even diameter.  But I did what I could.  One thing I had no trouble with was making the pretzels.  Make a U-shape, then fold each leg over and press it all firmly together.  I have a visual memory of visiting a place called "Montgomeryville Mart" in Pennsylvania when I was a lad and seeing some women doing all this in mid-air and taking no more than a couple seconds for each pretzel.  That was also a place to get some of the best sticky buns, but enough reminiscing.  As far as the my pretzel twisting,  I was not nearly so talented.

I covered the pretzels with a towel while I preheated the oven to 450F, then brought a quart of water and the baking soda to a slow boil.  The pretzels were then poached for 30 seconds per side, in batches of two or three.  They were then patted dry and placed on a parchment lined and cornmeal dusted cooking sheet.  I sprinkled on some of my sea salt and baked them for 10 minutes (the recipe says 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden).

And there we go, soft pretzels.  A tad misshapen, but I can live with that.

Serve warm, with mustard.  And a Yuengling, which is almost a Philly beer.

I will definitely keep this recipe on hand and make pretzels again.

Lessons Learned - I still need to do better at reading instructions properly.  My pretzels untwisted a bit after the poaching, I should have pressed the dough together after the initial twist.
Tools needed - nothing new this week.
Skills needed - need to learn more about how to knead.  Also could use better "dusting" skills, there was a bit too much corn meal on the bottom of my pretzels.