Soft Baked Pretzels

Soft Baked Pretzels :)

I made these while Dillon napped today, and then he tested them out for me :) YUM

I found the recipe on the blog "Fresh From Cate's Kitchen", you can find many other great recipes on her site as well, I know I have!

1 cup milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 tbsp honey

1 cup bread flour

1 1/4 to 2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 cups water

2 T baking soda

1 egg yolk

2 tsp milk

kosher salt

Place the scalded milk in a large bowel, and stir the yeast in until dissolved.

Add the honey and one bread flour, and stir until smooth.

Sprinkle on the salt, add the butter, and stir well to incorporate.

Add 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, and knead dough for about 5 minutes, until dough is smooth. Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky.

Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1/2 hour.

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and separate into 8 equal balls.

Roll each piece out into a long skinny rope, 24-30" long. Form into a typical pretzel shape.

Let the pretzels rise for about 10 minutes under a clean kitchen towel while you boil 1 cup of water with the baking soda in a small saucepan (make sure one pretzel at a time will fit in the pan!)

Mix together the egg yolk and milk.

Carefully lift a pretzel with a spatula and place in the boiling water.

After 20 seconds, remove and shake off the water. Place on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining pretzels.

Brush the egg yolk-milk mixture over the pretzels, then sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until deeply golden brown, then cool on a wire rack.

Serve to toddler.

What? A pretzel for a snack?!

Let's try this out....

What the heck! That is SALTY!

Hmm, I guess maybe I kinda like it!

There you go, a 15 month olds seal of approval :)