Pretzels

You know in shopping centres how there's always some little pretzel shop and if you walk past at the right time of day they hand out some free tasters? My friends and I are the ones that not so subtly walk in loops a few times to pass them more than once because we're greedy and those pretzels are damn good.


If you're lucky it'll be a fresh batch and they'll be soft and warm and covered in cinnamon sugar, so you can hardly blame us for wanting more than one tiny little bite. Though I can assure you that sometimes we can't resist and will actually pay for a whole pretzel.


Anyways ... I've been meaning to try out making pretzels for the longest time and finally got around to it the other week, with the help of Sami these little guys didn't turn out too bad. We covered some in the obligatory cinnamon sugar but also baked a few savoury ones, sprinkled with course sea salt. Later we realised these were pretty amazing dipped into a pot of melted Nutella and wished we'd made a few more..

We made these using gluten free flour and a lactose free butter, but found that for the pretzels that are going to have the cinnamon sugar coating, they will taste better if you brush them with real butter rather than marg or lactose free stuff.


Ingredients:

For the dough:
1 cup (240ml) almond milk
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast
2 1/2 (315g) cups gf flour

1 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp vegan butter
3 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
(Extra flour as needed)

To coat:
course salt
sugar
cinnamon
melted butter

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 180C and lightly grease a baking tray. 
• Mix the the milk and sugar together and warm slightly in the microwave.
• Add the yeast, then let it sit 5 minutes. 
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and the 2 tbsp sugar. 
• Cut in the butter, using a fork or electric whisk/food processor.
• Combine with the yeast mixture, using your hands or electric whisk/food processor until well-combined.
• Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed to keep it from being too sticky.
• Lightly grease the mixing bowl, then put the dough in the bowl, cover the bowl with a towel, and put in a warm place for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. 
• Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1 cup of warm water. Set aside. 
• On a plate mix together sugar and cinnamon and set aside. (choose how much cinnamon you want to use according to taste.)  
• Get out your risen dough and form into evenly-sized pieces (we made 8, but it depends on the size you wish to make them). 
• Roll each section as thinly as you possibly can (the thinner the better), then twist into a pretzel shape, then place on baking tray.

• Brush each pretzel with the bicarbonate of soda. As we were making half sweet/half savoury, at this point we sprinkled half of the pretzels with course sea salt and left the others plain.
• Baking time will vary, but pretzels are done when they have turned golden-brown and you can smell them, this should take about 15-20 minutes.
• The half that are not with salt, brush with melted butter while still warm and coat with sugar/cinnamon mix.

Aunty Annie's Pretzels from now on