Pretzels

Okay, so I know I'm supposed to be doing the grilled scallops from the 400 Recipes book, but I'm being lazy.  Yesterday, I wanted home-made pretzels, so we made those instead.  If anybody's keeping track, this one's number 25 in the book.

It's not a simple recipe, first, you have to make a 'yeast sponge'.  Yeah, I didn't know what that means either, so I just followed the recipe.  It says to mix 10 g fresh yeast, 5 Tbsp water and 1 Tbsp flour together and let them sit for two hours.  Now, I don't have fresh yeast, but the back of my fast acting yeast says that you can substitute 1 sachet for 15 g of fresh yeast, so I just used 2/3 of the sachet.  Well, if this website is to be trusted, a yeast sponge is supposed to get all thick and bubbly.  My sponge did nothing of the sort.  Then again, that website also says you should use roughly equal parts water and flower, so I don't know what's going on here.

Anyway, I followed the recipe like a good little boy.  The next step is to mix the yeast for the dough with some water and milk.  Now, I know what you're thinking--Mix yeast sponge with water and milk--well that's wrong.  In fact, the recipe calls for more yeast: I was a bit confused at this point, but I've never made pretzels before, so on with the recipe.  Actually, let me just quote this whole step for you:

Mix the yeast for the dough with the water, then stir in the milk.  Sift 3 cups of the flour and the salt into a bowl. Add the yeast sponge and the butter and mix for 3 - 4 minutes. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead in the remaining flour. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled clear film and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Do you see my problem?  It tells you to mix the yeast with the water and milk, and then it never mentions it again.  That is my problem.  Well, I just went ahead and imagined that they said, "sift 3 cups of the flour and the salt into the bowl", and hoped for the best.  After that, it's just letting the bread rise a couple times, and then it's on to the boiling.  First, I'd just like to say that I don't think my bread ever rises very much.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, of if my yeast is all dead or something, but frankly, my bread almost never doubles in size like they say.

After rolling and folding, the pretzels look like this:

The recipe doesn't say this, but it's a good idea to 'glue' the ends down using a bit of water, or they'll unfold during the boiling.  I learned this first-hand. 

I deviated from the recipe a little bit here.  The recipe says just to boil the pretzels in water for a minute, but I had read a few other pretzel recipes at this point, and they all called for boiling in water and baking soda, so I put some baking soda in there, and I think it turned out for the best. 

After boiling, you brush with an egg wash, season, and bake in a 350 F oven for 25 minutes and voilà, pretzels:

We seasoned these with Cornish sea salt, mostly, but some also had toasted sesame seeds, pepper, and there was even one with rosemary, thyme, and basil. 

Overall, the pretzels are pretty good.  The crust is a little hard and thick, and the inside is a little too chewy, but that could be from anything.  Maybe my yeast sponge wasn't spongy enough; maybe you are supposed to ignore that second bunch of yeast; maybe I kneaded the bread too much; or maybe the baking soda in the water did something.  In the end though, I think the baking soda added a little bit of that special pretzel taste.

I've since read a couple more pretzel recipes, and while I'm no authority, I'd say that this one isn't the best.  It just seems overly complex, which appears to be a trend in this book.  I think the next time I make pretzels, I'll use this recipe.

Chocolate Soufflés and More Sushi

Hello everyone, I know I said that I would be making the Grilled Scallops from the recipe book next, but I had some egg whites left over from making egg nogg, so I decided to make some Hot Mocha Rum Soufflés, recipe 330 from the 400 Appetizers book.

I think they turned out much better than my last soufflé attempt.

These didn't taste eggy at all.  If anything, they were a little too bitter, but I'll still give them a pass. They're quick and easy, and only call for stuff you already have around the house (assuming, of course, that you have eggs, butter, cocoa powder, coffee, rum, and sugar).  It's a tasty dessert.

We wanted to try our hands at another American sushi roll.  In case you've never seen one before, this is what's called a Philadelphia roll:

It's another inside-out roll, but it wasn't so bad this time, so maybe we're getting used to it.  Inside is imitation crab, avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese (hence the Philadelphia in the name).  There's smoked salmon on the top, along with a light sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.  These rolls are delicious; I heartily endorse them.

Okay, the grilled scallops are still coming up, and so are the lemon dreams, or whatever they're called.