Poached Pretzels and a 5K
Guest Blog by: Midge
This blog today was supposed to be about my grand attempt to get motivated out of my couch potato life and start moving. I have a 5K plan…I have goals…then, I was distracted by a fantastic looking pretzel recipe. Sigh…
So, I got myself off the couch and headed towards the kitchen. Internet recipe print out in hand, I put my ingredients in order. Then, because baking and I often disagree, I walked slowly through each agonizing step which was very time consuming.
Ever hear about the car mechanic, who gets done fixing your car and has parts left over? This pretzel recipe was like a train wreck. There was at least one ingredient in the ingredient list that did not translate into the numbered instructions. For those of us who are baking challenged ~ can I hear a collective “AAAAUUUUGGGHHH!”.
After twenty minutes I found out I was wrong and all of the ingredients were accounted for. The ingredient in question was baking soda and I was supposed to use it to “poach” the pretzel before baking it. Poaching a pretzel is probably the oddest instruction I have been given in a very long time. I am not sure that I have ever “poached” anything before. My husband was sure I was talking about poaching animals but I assured him I was not going to go elephant hunting any time soon!
I boiled the water added the baking soda and poached. Did I do it right? I have no idea! But, I followed those directions like I was a third chair flute on parade day.
When my husband and I finally ate them, they actually tasted okay. But, they were not the light, fluffy soft pretzels you buy at a basketball game. They turned out thick, heavy, and tasting slightly of baking soda. By now, I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the recipe, just my interpretation of it.
Maybe I should have stuck to my original plan- get moving! There is a 5K (3.1 miles) race every year where I live and I told my husband that my goal is to actually run the entire race. By the way, not counting PE class where you are forced to run, I am not nor have I ever been a runner. I just need to get inspired and start moving.
I have until June and I already got off the couch. Now, I just need to get out of the kitchen!
Do you have any recommendations for how to turn my interpretation of this recipe from thick and heavy to light and fluffy? What are your goals for this New Year? Do you want to join the Midge team (party of one) with my 5K challenge?
Here are a couple of websites to share:
*My friend was the first one to inspire me when she mentioned she was going to do a COUCH TO 5K program…I think I might look into this!
*Want to try the same pretzel recipe and give me a few pointers?
You might try adding a little to the 2nd rise time. In the winter, unless you keep your house really warm you may need to add some time to the rise to account for the cooler temperature (yeast likes it warm, but not hot.) I like to do my bread baking after I’ve cooked or baked something else because we keep our house at a toasty 64 degrees in the winter.
Also, if those are your pretzels in the picture, remember they are going to rise when you roll them out. Roll them out about half as thick as you want them to turn out when they are done. I think some of the things we eat are actually made with slightly different ingredients than what we use at home, so what you eat at the ball game may be made with a different type of flour or something.
Another thing I’ve tried recently is pizza crust yeast. Not for the pretzels, but the pizza crusts we make. It has a dough conditioner in it that is supposed to allow you to skip the rise time (although if you try the pizza crust yeast for pretzels, I’d still allow it to rise some, we like thiiiin pizza crusts.)
Midge Says: Thanks so much for writing in! I really appreciate your thoughtful answer. I have had issues in the past with a kitchen draft during my rise time and I probably did not allow “enough” time to rise. Also, the recipe seemed to call for too much flour which made my dough almost too thick to roll out thin. Do you think this would of added further problems to my issue?
I never knew there was a different kind of yeast for pizza crust?? Wow! What kind of recipe do you use for pizza crust? I will check it out the next time I am at the grocery store! Thanks again!
How long did you bake these? Sounds like you did everything right. I may need to ponder this.
Midge Says: I followed the directions for baking time. Now that I am rethinking my pretzels, I am thinking that the issue may have been in the amount of time I allowed it to rise. What do you think?
I’ve run out of the packets of the pizza crust yeast, but the recipe is on the packets and I think I’ve seen them just about everywhere that sells yeast. The pizza crust yeast is a fairly new product. It’s from Fleischmann’s and they have a special website for it: http://www.pizzacrustyeast.com and I just looked at it. I’m not sure which recipe we used, but they also have one for stuffed crust (yum!)
As for the amount of flour, definitely add a little at a time. I usually measure my flour in 1/2 cups and as the dough gets thicker, I still fill them to the top, but only sprinkle in part of it at a time. The dough should be just past the point where it is no longer sticky. Your hands should not have much, if any, gunky dough on them when you’re done. If it was really hard to work with, the amount of flour could very well have been the culprit.
Humidity can also play a role. I’ve noticed that a 20% difference in the humidity outside means a difference of 1/2 cup or more of flour. I’ve baked bread for about 20 years so I’ve just gotten a feel for how it should, well, feel
Don’t give up. I remember reading somewhere advice from 100 years ago on learning to cook that said if you cook the same thing every day for a week (it may have been 2 weeks, I can never remember) you’ll have it mastered. That seems excessive, but practice makes perfect and homemade is sooo worth it.
Midge Says: I usually make a recipe about 5 times in a row!! I don’t know if I could do it two weeks straight – lol Although, with this recipe I did not try it again right away because I wanted to hear what readers had to say then change a few things. Thanks for the hint about the pizza yeast… I still need to go find it at the store! Can’t wait to try pizza dough with it and see the difference!
My husband actually managed Auntie Anne’s. They simply dredged the dough in baking soda water before the second rise and baking. This is what makes the pretzels shiny. They didn’t boil them. I would think that would give the pretzels more of a bagel texture, since they are boiled and then baked.
Midge Says: That is so interesting. I never knew that baking soda water was even used in making pretzels until I tried it myself. Thanks for writing in!
I highly recommend Jeff Galloway’s 5K app to train for a 5K. I tried a couch to 5K app first but fell in love with the Jeff Galloway one. I ran my first 5K last fall. If you can’t get the app I recommend looking at his website or books (I get them from the library).
I am working on a blog post on how to make hot buttered pretzels (and you don’t need to boil them). I will share the link when I’m done.
Midge Says: Thanks for the hints! I will check out his website!