told you about pretzels before<\/a>.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an update, with a bit of Actuary family life thrown in.<\/p>\nMy youngest son is 11, going into 6th grade, which means that he\u2019s still daycamp\u00a0age:\u00a0 he spent three weeks at small-boat sailing daycamp, a week at the School of Rock daycamp, a week at a half-day robotics daycamp, a week at Boy Scout Camp, and spent the past week at a daycamp taking place at the 1880s-recreation farm near us.\u00a0 Yes, in many respects, he might be better off if left to find ways to entertain himself, but it\u2019s as much about keeping him busy and giving me time to work, even though, at the moment, \u201cwork\u201d has taken a different form than in the past.<\/p>\n
In any event, on the first day of this week\u2019s daycamp, they made pretzels.\u00a0 It was a very simple recipe, so simple, in fact, that he memorized it, though later on he brought home a photocopy:<\/p>\n
2 \u2013 3 cups flour<\/p>\n
1 tsp\u00a0salt<\/p>\n
1 tbsp yeast<\/p>\n
1 tbsp sugar<\/p>\n
1 cup warm water<\/p>\n
melted butter<\/p>\n
salt or cinnamon sugar<\/p>\n
Mix the yeast and water in a large bowl.\u00a0 Add the sugar, stir.\u00a0 And\u00a0the salt, then the flour 1\/2 cup at a time, until a ball is formed.\u00a0 Knead for a few minutes.\u00a0 Break into smaller pieces and form into pretzel shapes.\u00a0 Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt or cinnamon sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 \u2013 10 minutes on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.<\/p>\n
So after getting home, my son got out the ingredients and mixed them together.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t worry about getting the water to the right temperature, and I think the generous quantity of yeast made this less necessary (you\u2019ll note there is also not any rise cycle).\u00a0 He shaped them into pretzel shapes (though he was frustrated that the dough was difficult to work with), brushed them with butter, and sprinkled both salt and cinnamon sugar for good measure.\u00a0 They turned out good, though not yet exceptional.<\/p>\n
The next day he decided that, similar to our prior pretzel making efforts, he wanted to do a lye bath, so we did so together.\u00a0 (Yes, the lye bath part was more of a joint effort.)\u00a0 They came out more pretzely, though he was still frustrated at the difficulty working with the dough.<\/p>\n
He decided to watch some you tube videos demonstrating the lye bath.\u00a0 One of them demonstrated the pretzel-making with a mixer, the other by hand, and he said, \u201cwow, look how nice the dough looks after he kneaded it!\u201d \u2014 which, I have to say, I had assumed was skipped in pretzel-making with the kids just to make it simpler, but Mikey said, \u201coh, no, the recipe says to knead it but I just skipped that because I didn\u2019t know how much it mattered.\u201d\u00a0 So he kneaded \u2013 and was very pleased how it turned out.<\/p>\n
On Day 3, he kneaded by hand again, but was less happy with the way it turned out.\u00a0 So on Day 4, he used the mixer with the dough hook, doubled the recipe and was very pleased with the outcome.\u00a0 To be sure, even with the lye bath, they are not authentic German pretzels with that crunch on the outside, and I think the next time around, we\u2019ll add steam, artistan\u00a0bread-style.<\/p>\n
And, yes, that\u2019s a lot of pretzels \u2014 because my son, when he\u2019s into something, gets really into it.\u00a0 Earlier this summer he made multiple batches of brioche.\u00a0 A couple months prior to that, he made Boy Scout-style monkey bread.\u00a0 And so on.<\/p>\n
But this is what we learned in the course of his experiments:\u00a0 it is truly all about the lye.\u00a0 The recipe I used in my original experiments used more finicky amounts of ingredients; my son\u2019s recipe was very simple.\u00a0 But using lye, rather than the Nervous-Nellie alternative of baking soda, really makes all the difference, and gives it that distinctive pretzel-y taste.<\/p>\n
I also came to the conclusion that the lye isn\u2019t quite as deadly as you might think from all of the lye-handling warnings \u2014 because those warnings are generally in the context of crafters who make soap as a hobby, and the concentration of lye used for soap-making is much stronger than that of pretzel-dipping.\u00a0 The method we finally worked out is this:\u00a0 put 1 tbsp lye in 2 cups cold water in a plastic bowl, and set it in the sink, with a parchment paper-covered baking sheet right next to the sink.\u00a0 Then my son shapes the pretzels, I put on the rubber gloves, and, one by one,\u00a0he drops them onto my hands, I dip them into the lye bath, coating them thoroughly, and set them on the baking sheet, reshaping them as needed.\u00a0 Then he sprinkles the toppings on and we bake them.\u00a0 I dump the lye bath into the sink, rinse everything completely, then wash them as usual.\u00a0 So far, none of us have died.<\/p>\n
How is it that the lye ends up being harmless?\u00a0 The best I understand, there\u2019s some sort of chemical reaction when it bakes.\u00a0 Whether that means that the pretzels (or the drips of lye bath water on the baking sheet) are dangerous to touch before going into the oven, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But I still find it fascinating that this DANGER! DANGER! ingredient works out as it does.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve told you about pretzels before.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an update, with a bit of Actuary family life thrown in. My youngest son is 11, going into 6th grade, which means that he\u2019s still daycamp\u00a0age:\u00a0 he spent three weeks at small-boat sailing daycamp, a week at the School of Rock daycamp, a week at a half-day robotics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":10518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[817,160],"class_list":["post-10515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pretzels","tag-recipes"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n