Secret Recipe Club & One of the Best Things I’ve Ever Made

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, where bloggers are assigned a foodie blog, select and prepare a recipe, and on “reveal” day (today) post about the recipe and share whose blog we were secretly assigned. It’s a great way to meet other bloggers and find new recipes.

This month I was assigned Amy's Cooking Adventures. Amy is a stay at home mom with two little boys. She enjoys baking quite a bit and like me, cooking healthy as much as possible. I really had a hard time deciding what to make from her blog. I debated about preparing the Heart Healthy Vegetable Alfredo with Pan Seared Chicken , which is still on my to-make pile, likely later this week, but from the day the assignment came to my in-box, I knew what I was making.

Homemade soft pretzels have been on my culinary bucket list for as long as I can remember. I love the combination of salty and starch, and pretzels warm out of the oven are pretty much perfect food. Fluffy in the inside, beautifully browned, and freshly puffed. But why hadn’t I made them if I liked eating them so much? Simple. I thought homemade pretzels either had to be prepared with (food safe!) lye, whatever that ominously is in food, and they had to be boiled (can you say big mess all over the cook top?). Much to my delight neither is true. Doing a bit of quick research, I now understood how Amy’s Soft Pretzels are made without lye. Lye is an alkali. Baking soda (mixed with water) is an alkali. Viola! Dip the unbaked pretzel in the solution and the “lye” reacts to the surface of the dough, resulting in the pretzel’s deep, glossy brown when baked and gives the pretzel its crisp yet slightly chewy texture.

Be forewarned. This pretzels are not good. They are to die for. Connor had two and a half of them and only stopped there because he was in the middle of preparing dinner for us. I was supposed to share one with Craig but ended up eating almost the whole thing myself. Amy’s original recipe shares a riff for making stuffed pretzels, and the topping possibilities are limited only by your imagination. But I am a pretzel purist and a brush of warmed butter and kosher salt are all I need. Next time I may experiment with making them into pretzel sticks rather then eight rather large pretzels. Portion control. Maybe.

As a note, Amy makes the dough in a mixer. The recipe below reflects the changes I made, notably using the food processor to prepare the dough like I do with pizza dough.

Soft Pretzels

Makes 8 pretzels       

Soda Wash 
½ C warm water

2 T baking soda

Dough 
1 t sugar

2 t yeast

1 C warm water (110-115 degrees F)

½ t salt

2 ½ C all purpose flour

Toppings 
3 T unsalted butter, melted

Kosher salt

In a small saucepan, combine the ½ cup water and 2 tablespoons of baking soda. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir the water until the baking soda is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Place the 1 cup of water, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Mix until it froths slightly. Add the salt and flour and knead for 5 minutes or so until the dough forms a ball. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour as needed. Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Put the bowl in a warm place and let the dough rise for at least 30 minutes, longer is fine.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and spray a baking sheet with non stick spray.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 equal parts. Let the dough rest, lightly covered for 3 minutes.

Using your hands, roll each section of the dough into a long, thin rope and shape into a pretzel. Dip each pretzel into the soda wash and place on the prepared baking sheets, reshaping as necessary. Let the pretzels rest for 10 minutes.

Bake the pretzels for 8-10 minutes (6-7 minutes in a convection oven) or until deeply browned. Brush the pretzels generously with melted butter and sprinkle with salt.

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