Same as before, but this time Casey tracked down some food grade lye on the internet. It makes a huge difference.
Unfortunately, I've only got the one left to take pictures of since the others have all been eaten already.
So this time I made pretzels. I actually made a batch last night, but I didn't get any photos. Mostly traditional, though those two in the foreground are sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar instead of salt.
2-3 cups flour, depending on how well it absorbs everything
1 tablespoon malt powder OR brown sugar (I used sugar because I don't have any malt powder)
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm milk
1. Mix it all together until it forms a dough that starts to pull away from the bowl.
2. Knead it on a floured surface for 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth dough ball.
3. I've been putting it back in a greased bowl and letting it rise for an hour at this point but there's some debate as to how necessary that is.
4. Punch the dough down if you let it rise, then divide it into around six pieces.
5. Roll those pieces into long, thin ropes.
6. Shape them how you want. Mine were supposed to be traditional pretzel shaped but some of them separated a little during the boiling.
7. Boil them briefly in a mixture of water and baking soda. Traditionally they're boiled in water and food grade lye but I'm using baking soda as a more convenient (though less effective) substitute. I'm still playing with boiling time and the exact amount of baking soda, but somewhere around 4 tablespoons of baking soda and a minute or so of boiling will get you pretzels like mine.
8. Place the pretzels on a greased or lined baking sheet, liberally season, then bake in the oven at 425ยบ for around 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
9. Cool and eat.
