Nest Full of New

When I ran across this recipe for Pretzel Rolls on Pinterest, I thought, “Those look amazingly yummy and amazingly difficult.” I pinned it to one of my boards and moved on. Every time I scrolled through, I would linger on this one and imagine what a hero I would be around my house if I could pull that one off. And then move on again…

Today I had a house full of hungry men watching football. The same men I planned to ask to move some furniture in between games. I figured I’d better do something remarkable or my request would be met with blank stares and whining. Back to Pinterest and Rachel’s recipe. The Great Pretzel Roll Caper is on and the “Mission Impossible” theme begins playing in the background…

Pretzel Rolls

The Dough
6 – 7 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups milk, slightly warmed
1 cup water, slightly warmed

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

The “Bath”
7 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons baking soda

In a small container, mix yeast with warmed milk and let rest for 10 minutes.Whisk 5 3/4 cups of flour and teaspoon of salt in a large bowl.

Add canola oil and warmed water to yeast mixture. Pour into bowl with flour and salt. Knead in the bowl until dough is mostly smooth. Only add more flour if your dough cannot be easily handled. The dough will be somewhat stiff. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and put in a warm place to rise for one hour.

Punch down dough and knead in bowl for one minute.Cut dough into 15 pieces – these will become the size of a standard bun. If you would like smaller size rolls, like I did, cut smaller pieces. I’m confident that you could also form hot dogs rolls. I made 30 slider sized rolls. Form balls by pulling the dough under. Place on a well-greased surface. Let the dough balls rise for 15 minutes.

While the dough balls are rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get the pretzel “bath” ready. In a large pot, bring water, salt, and baking soda to a rolling boil. Plunge three dough balls into the water and let them “poach” for 1 minute total.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a well-greased baking sheet. With a serrated knife, cut 2-3 lines across each roll and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until pretzels are a rich brown. (My smaller rolls took 18 minutes.)

Rachel reports that these are best eaten the same day they are made. I did freeze about half of my batch for another day – we’ll see if they’re just as delicious once they’re thawed and reheated.

The Results

Once these were done – and it truly wasn’t near as difficult as I had imagined – I was super proud!

Not bad for my first attempt. As for the football boys, well, I cooked up some ground chicken patties and some bacon and made them a plate full of sliders. They said the only thing they’d change would be to have more of them next weekend. Then they came upstairs and kindly moved the furniture without one complaint. Oh…and the Saints won! It was a good day.