Soft Pretzels

I love living in the South. The weather is warmer, life moves slower, and the people are a bit nicer. But as much as I love it here, I sometimes long for the food of my childhood. If I could bring cheesesteaks, hoagies, a NY slice of pizza, and soft pretzels to North Carolina the world would be a beautiful place.

As a kid, I thought it was weird that we brought soft pretzels and deli meat with us when we went to visit my uncle in Maryland, but now I understand his pain. I have no deli to turn when I want a warm, salty, soft pretzel. So this past weekend, I turned to my oven to try my hand at making my own soft pretzels. While they didn’t quite meet the glory of my youth, they were still pretty damn good.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

3tbsp brown sugar lightly packed

2tbsp butter - melted

1tbsp active dry yeast

2tsp fine salt

3 cups warm water

1/3 cup baking soda

Pretzel salt (any coarse salt works)

4tbsp butter - melted

To make the dough, warm up the milk in the microwave for 2 minutes and add the 1tbsp of active dry yeast. Gently stir the two together and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add the brown sugar and butter before mixing well. Slowly mix in the 2 1/2 cups of flour and add the fine salt. I prefer to add my flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well in between each addition. Mix the dough well and knead it for 10minutes by hand or using a stand mixer. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and set it in a warm place for 1 hour. After 1 hour the mixture should have doubled in size. Punch down the down to remove the excess air and form it into a ball.

Divide your ball of dough into 12 equally sized smaller pieces and roll them out on a well floured surface. Try to make the rolled out dough as thin as possible as it will double in width when we add it to the baking soda solution. To roll out the dough, begin in the middle and pull it gently apart as your roll it back and forth. If a piece breaks off, just stick it back together and keep going.

After you've rolled out the dough, make a circle that is twisted at the top, like shown above. Try to keep the sides even as you twist. Twist the top once more and then fold it down to form the classic pretzel shape. Repeat the process for all 12 pieces of dough

On the stove bring the 3 cups of warm water and the 1/3 cup of baking soda to a gentle boil. When the water begins to boil, turn down your stove to simmer.

Preheat your oven to 450°

Dip each pretzel in the baking soda solution and submerge it in the water for 10-15 seconds. Use a slotted spoon or a fork to remove the pretzels from the baking soda and place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.

Reshape your pretzels if they've come undone in the baking soda solution and prepare your baking sheet. Give each pretzel about 1inch of empty space around it as it will double in size as it bakes. Place your pretzels in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

As your pretzels bake, melt 4-6tbsp of butter into a shallow bowl. As soon as your pretzels are finished baking remove them from the oven, and dip them in the melted butter. Place the buttered pretzels back onto the baking sheet and salt them to your taste using a coarse salt.

Spice things up with a spicy mustard or cheese sauce for dipping, and enjoy!

Spinach Garlic Pizza

Homemade Spinach Garlic Pizza

A thick and chewy garlic crust with a topping of fresh tomatoes and sautéed spinach.

Confession: Pizza is my desert island food. Seriously, I could eat pizza day after day without complaint because there are so many options that I could go for months without repeating a pizza.

Making a pizza from scratch might sound daunting. Why should you spend the time kneading out dough and chopping up toppings when a frozen pizza is just as good? I promise you, homemade pizza dough and fresh toppings are so worth it.

I use a bread maker to prepare the pizza dough. I use the Oster ExpressBake which has a specific dough setting that takes 1 1/2 hours to prepare. If you don't have a bread maker, no problem. This recipe is just as easy by hand, plus you'll get a nice arm workout!

The Dough

First off, let's gather all of the ingredients we need for the garlic pizza dough.

2 cups bread flour (All purpose flour can be used as a substitute)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

4 tbsp Roasted Garlic Instant Mashed Potatoes

1 tsp white sugar

1 cup of warm water (temperature is important)

If you are using a bread machine, add these ingredients in the order recommended by the machine's maker and go read a good book for a little while.

For those of you making the dough by hand, roll up your sleeves and get ready to dive in. First, we need to prepare the yeast. In a small bowl combine the yeast and sugar with 2 tbsp of warm water and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, once the mixture has bubbled up, add in the flour, potato mix and the rest of the water. Continue to mix and knead the mixture until it begins to look and feel like dough, which should take 4 to 5 minutes. When you're done kneading, cover the bowl with a dry cloth or plastic wrap and set it in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Now you can go read your book.

Once the dough has risen, (or the bread machine finished) place the dough on a clean floured surface, cover the dough in flour and knead it for 1 minute. Let the dough stand for 5-minutes. 

At this point, turn on your oven to 450°F. If you are using a ceramic pizza stone, put it in the oven as it is preheating to avoid damage to the stone.

Using your hands or a rolling pin, spread out the dough until it cover the entire pan. When the entire surface is covered, use your fingers along the edges to make them a bit thicker for the crust. 

This step is important: Cover your pizza in a very thin layer of olive oil and place it in the oven. It's okay if your oven isn't up to temperature yet. Allow your dough to bake without any toppings for 10-12 minutes, or until it begins to brown. 

The Toppings

While your dough gets its bake on, it's time to prepare the best part of the pizza: the toppings! For our spinach garlic pizza, we'll need the following ingredients

1 bag of baby spinach leaves

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tomatoes (sliced thin)

Garlic (minced)

1 onion (chopped)

2 cups shredded cheese

1 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 tsp Oregano Leaves

To prepare the spinach I always return to T.Swift's chef BFF, Ina Garten. I discovered her sautéed spinach recipe years ago and absolutely nothing about it needs to be changed. That said, for our pizza we're going to skip the last step of her recipe and withhold from the butter and lemon.

Ina Garten's Garlic Sautéd Spinach

Put it all together

When your pizza crust begins to brown, remove it from the oven and begin to place your toppings. While many believe there's no right or wrong way to order your ingredients, I disagree. I believe a smattering of cheese between layers of larger ingredients really pulls the pizza together. Here is my tried and true topping pattern:

Olive oil and seasonings

cheese

tomatoes

cheese

spinach and onions

cheese

a pinch more of seasoning

a dribble of olive oil

Finally, stick that beautiful looking pizza back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until is has achieved your desired level of melted, cheesy deliciousness. I like my pizza dark and crispy, so I put my pizza back in for the full 15 minutes. 

Slice that beautiful looking pie and promise yourself to never settle for frozen pizza again.

The Garlic Graduate