i’m really sorry. i haven’t had the energy to blog lately.
having an active social life really is draining all my time.
wow. that was an incredibly sad statement, but… true.
ahh… what will happen to my blog life? i’m sorta scared.
but anyway: where did i leave you last time?
yes!
we’ve put together our dough, kneaded it, rose (risen?) it, and divided it up.
now, it’s time to shape it!
wait. take a moment to admire my beautiful diagrams.
which aren’t entirely accurate.
uhhuh. so first, roll out a long rope.
it’s supposed to be a little sticky. don’t over-flour it like i did.
then i recruited my mother to take photos as i tried to form beautiful pretzel shapes.
take the two ends…
bring them to the middle of the log, one on top of the other.
let go. you now have a pretzel shape that’s missing one spiral.
so take the ends and cross them over one more time.
use a little water to stick the shape together.
ta da?
sorry about the vague instructions. the photos weren’t clear enough.
you know what? i think that i should rename my blog:
“Recipe/Kitchen Fail Blog”.
and it should tell you about what NOT to do when cooking.
tip number one: always look at the recipe very carefully.
especially when it mentions placing shaped dough onto GREASED parchment paper.
notice the absence of a certain thing in the below photo.
at this point, between shaping and boiling,
you’re supposed to let them sit uncovered for about 20 minutes.
so, uh, guess what happened when i tried to pick them up?
yeah. that happened. it happened to all of them.
not only are they really ugly now,
but all the air that was accumulated from the short rising process
was gone.
DAMN. damn. gosh.
so my solution was to reshape it.
and set them on the pan, brushed liberally with vegetable oil.
screw additional calories. i don’t want them to stick.
i was tired of doing the pretzel shape so i made these instead.
they were fun to eat, too.
so now i also gave them some time to rest for a while…
shh. they’re resting.
and i’m ready with my liberally greased parchment paper.
and with my heaping tablespoon of baking soda.
note: the baking soda helps the pretzels brown.
if you’re like me, and use very naturally tough ingredients
(non-properly risen dough, whole wheat flour)
then i actually don’t recommend the use of baking powder.
i also heard that it makes cinnamon-sugar pretzels taste strange.
it did taste vaguely baking soda-y.
so while my pretzels were rising,
i filled the biggest pot i could find with water.
and brought it to a boil. yeah. you know how to do that, right?
right?
it’d be disturbing if i actually knew more than someone here.
when it’s boiling, carefully put in a pretzel.
should i say drop it in? slide it in? you decide. just be gentle.
parboil it for a total of three minutes, flipping once halfway through.
see this tool? it’s a spider. you could also use a slotted spoon or a spatula to help.
while i boiled the pretzels, i hurried around the kitchen getting the toppings ready.
first, make an egg wash – beat an egg until uniform in colour.
you could add a splash of milk or water if you wanted to.
the cast of characters, from left to right:
- parmesan cheese + dried parsley flakes
- garlic salt + freshly ground black pepper
- black sesame seeds
- cinnamon sugar
before toppings… (so naked! ohnoez!)
after toppings…
and after baking!
Mom? Who’s that kid? Why does he look so different?
Oh, no, don’t look! Don’t look, my child!
Mom, I’m scared! What’s he going to do to me? He’s so scary!
Don’t consort with those kind, dear. You know that.
dem haters be sippin’ on de haterade.
anyway, my verdict was this:
as always, follow the recipe.
you know? like, seriously. follow the recipe.
there are some people out there who can really modify recipes well.
i’ve kinda accepted the fact that i’m not one of them.
so, um, yeah.
thus concludes my fail.
and my last foray into bread baking.
until i make this luscious loaf.
mmhmm. i’m willing to go there. screw calories. gimme mah buttah.
**
What’s your experience with whole wheat baked goods? Any advice?
So cute! I would definitely go for the cinnamon-sugar one :D
I’ve been wanting to make pretzels, but something about them just scares me. The lengthy steps and the need to dip them in hot water, perhaps?
Ah, yes. But it’s like that with bread, too, right? I think that bread making in general just scares me. :P The cinnamon sugar one was gooooood.
your pretzels are cute! never tried baking bread with whole wheat flour. cakes are as far as i go. :)
Thank you! Strange, for me it’s the opposite – I’d go whole wheat with bread, but not with cake. Hmm. Cake just seems too delicate to whole-wheat-ise! :P
Honestly, I just think it’s great you post in spite of what you feel is an unsuccessful attempt (looks pretty good to me…)!
And being too busy to blog isn’t necessarily a bad thing ;)
Thank you! I believe in being honest with what I do. And I’ll never claim to be a good cook ;)
And yeah. Sometimes I wonder how people manage to blog AND live life normally! Eh. Well. I guess I’ll just treat it as a hobby :)
Wow, I’ve never heard of parboiling pretzel dough to make pretzels! You learn something new every day. When it comes to modifying recipes, I find that it is far easier to modify something that isn’t baked (cakes, cookies, etc) because baking has to be so precise whereas a stir fry (for example) can be pretty much modified by tasting as you go.
I didn’t know, either! I didn’t used to know that bagels had to be parboiled, too. :P You do learn something new! And yeah, I don’t cook very often so I guess the only place I can be modifying however I want is in baked goods. Though obviously it rarely turns out well for me ;)
Even if the taste isn’t quite right they still look cute! In the future whole wheat pastry flour makes for a better substitution for all purpose or use half all purpose and have whole wheat.
Thank you for the tips! I’ll keep that in mind when messing around with the ratios next time :)
Wow! Awesome post. You have definitely attempted some foods that I have never thought to make in the past. Some things just look too hard, but you made pretzel making look like a cinch! I love how you reshaped them. Those would be cute to put in a little bowl on the middle of the table as an appetizer for the family. :) I have not had too much trouble with whole wheat flour, but I am like you I have to stick to the recipe. There have been too many things in the past that I have tried to modify and they just turned into one big fat disaster. lol
-Court
I still would have preferred if they were actual pretzel shapes, though! I wonder what would happen if you made them mini and didn’t boil them? THAT would make a really cute appetiser!
I made both pretzels with a cinnamon topping and bagels with a caffeine pill topping. The latter caused excessive heart palpatations that bordered lethal.
I want to do it again.
I will do it with you. Contact me if you’re doing it again.
Awwe, don’t worry, I can’t deviate from a recipe either, I would have messed up way more! You’re not alone!!
I actually take pride in being able to deviate from a recipe… well. I used to be able to. Key word being “used to”… :P
Hi there, first time reading your blog. For whole wheat recipe usually using vital wheat gluten might help a bit..also add some baking powder or use 50/50 ratio with white flour :)
Hey there, thanks for visiting! I’m sorry if I sound dumb, but what’s vital wheat gluten? Sounds interesting… and I’ll keep the other tips in mind too, thanks! :)
I never had good result with ww flour, mainly because I kept modifying the recipe to make it healthier or to to make it with what I have in the house, lol. But after 564564564 unsuccesful attempts, I decided to stick to recipe with only MINOR adjustements. After a while, you know what’s considered minor or major :p
All my baked goods recipes are in grams, so no worries about that…although the humidity in China can change something :s
The pretzels looked good before you tried to pick them up, lol. :p
p.s: I take boxing class too!!
xoxo :D
I like using grams! It’s very precise. And DUDE. Do you know where to take boxing classes in Shanghai?? I want to do some kind of martial arts. Like taekwondo or something. :P
Your photos aren’t loading for me, but it sounds great! ;)
Damnnn. I’ll look into it, thanks!