After some practice, I got better at my twist, the exact bake time -- to the second, and my knead-technique.


I experimented with whole wheat flour, some gluten-free flour, spelt flour, and a few other kinds, but it's not a surprise that nothing beats the traditional mall-style original.


It's best when you can get them just slightly underdone, but beautifully golden on the bottom.


Good pretzel chat. <3

Maybe before you start rolling your balls of dough out, make your baking soda bath. This bath is essential for pretzel-making. One time I accidentally skipped the dunking process for my last 4 pretzels and they came out like pretzel-shaped breadsticks. They were good, but they were NOT pretzels. The bath is just a quart of water boiled with a handful of baking soda dissolved into it.




The pretzels are all activated now with their rich, shiny coating. They look a little bubbly, but that's okay, it's the baking soda. Try not to drip too much of the water onto the baking sheet, because it makes the pretzels hard to get off the sheet after they are baked. I may or may not have done that tonight...


Sprinkle with salt! Any salt will do-- be it fleur de sel or table salt. I accidentally bought this huge bottle of coarse grain sea salt instead of fine ground one time, so I figured this would be the perfect occasion to make use of it. Plus, I'm way to punk for fleur de sel...



Bake them at 400ºF for NINE minutes. Ten is too long, eight is too short. Let them cool for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire cooling rack. They will be beautiful and look something like this:

Behold, the first miracle you performed since dinner.

And you're done! Pretzels are before you! You can have at them straight up, or you can dip them in an assortment of things. I am a mustard person, but I've been known to dip them in almond butter, chocolate, pasta sauce, hummus, barbecue sauce, vegenaise...


Enjoy everybody!!

I went to Florida for vacation and to visit some family. It was very relaxing. I make soft pretzels to relax, so this is a picture of me relaxing.







I also made a pot-o-guac. I put some grilled corn and tomatoes in there too, trying to make it as reminiscent of chili's guacamole as possible. I mean you don't go to chili's and NOT get the guac appetizer. That would be worse than going to a sushi place and not getting sushi. Or like going to bueno y sano and not getting a burrito. Or Stuff Yer Face and not getting a boli. Basically, you don't really have a choice. You should be served this guacamole upon being seated and understand that it is going to be part of your bill.

Many Salad/Smoovie nights have taken place this week. They are a fun June tradition we started a year or two ago. As long as your salad is not bitchy and small, and you have some good stuff in there, a salad can really slam dunk it. A delicious smoovie doesn't hurt it either.