Homemade Pretzels

Pin It Ok, so I have food to share and food questions!!

I had been meaning to post this a while back and then I had gotten sick and that just wiped me out!!  I made Home made Pretzels!!!!  They turned out delicious!!!!  I found the recipe on this site: Heavenly Homemakers



Laura’s Amazing Soft Pretzels: (This recipe I copied from her site and just omitted the pictures, if you click on the link above, it takes you to the page with step by step pictures!!!)

Ingredients:

1 c. water
2 T. yeast
2 t. honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 t. salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
butter
salt

(You can make these with white flour and white sugar if you want to have a delicious *** of empty calories…but I have found that using these healthier ingredients does not make us like these pretzels any less!)

Okay, here are the directions for preparing the pretzels that are to die for:

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, 2 T. yeast and 2 t. honey.  Stir this together and kind of mush the yeast around.  Let this sit for a few minutes while you do the next step.

Melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan.

Add 1/2 cup honey, 4 t. salt and 2 1/2 cups of milk.  Heat this to 120 degrees.

Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir.

Stir in 8 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time. (add more if you need it)

Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

Plop it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours. 

Pull it out of the bowl and knead it a few times to get the air out. 

Pull a ball of dough, about the size of your fist off and get ready to make your very first pretzel! (such a proud moment)

Roll it into a long snake. Pick up the ends and cross them over each other, at the top, leaving a small loop at the bottom.

Then pick up the ends and pull them down to the bottom.

After you shape each pretzel, put them on a cookie sheet about an inch apart.  Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan.

Right when you take the pretzels out of the oven, slather them with butter.  Lay it on thick.  Don’t hold back.

Then sprinkle salt over them.

 

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So now for Food questions.....

1.  Has anyone ever made homemade pizza and frozen them for future use?  Did you flash freeze the dough first and then put the toppings on?  Or did you just assemble the whole pizza and then freeze it?  I am wanting to make some of these up closer to my due date at the beginning of March and thought this would be a nice thing to have.

2. I was reading Cher's blog the other day and she mentioned making sure her pantry was organized.....it got me to thinking....one, wishing I had a pantry that was that well stocked and two....what ingredients do you usually keep on hand to prepare a quick but large meal when your hubby calls and says "by the way I am bringing home some extra dinner guests." What are your spur of the moment dinner recipes/ideas... Keep in mind we are not soup fans here....

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And speaking of dough.......

What is up with making bread dough.....as you can see up above for the pretzels the dough rose beautifully.....a bakers dream.....

Why in the world does sometimes it rise like that and then like when I make my pizza dough.....it is barely halfway at the most up the side of the bowl....why does dough not rise the same every time!!!