Pretzel Rolls

My brother in law was over yesterday and said he had a project for me. He brought out a bag of Trader Joe's pretzel rolls and asked if I could make anything like it.

I do love a challenge. I started searching my favorite blogs first and struck out. So I checked tastespotting and foodgawker. I came across this recipe from foodgawker.

If you've ever made soft pretzels at home, this is really no different. They are just shaped differently. They are soft, chewy and delicious. I had one for lunch today with shaved turkey and provel cheese. A-mazing.

The recipe said to make 18, two ounce balls of dough. I weighed mine and they were all close to two ounces and I only got 16 rolls. I think next time I will make them a little bigger because these were almost slider-size instead of bun-size. The directions were very good, so I've just copied them (almost) exactly from Stresscake.

Enjoy!!!

Pretzel Rolls

From: Stresscake

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups warm water (around 110°F)
1 packet active dry yeast

2 tsp sugar
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
pretzel salt - I used coarse Kosher salt

Directions:
Combine the water and the yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer and let rest 5 minutes until foamy. Add the remaining ingredients (sugar, flour, salt, butter) and mix with the dough hook until thoroughly combined, the dough comes together and is rather silky – but not sticky – to the touch.

First rise: Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Punch down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper or Silpat mats.

Shaping: Cut the dough into 18 pieces, roughly 2 ounces each. (Or really any size you wish, keeping in mind that you’re going to have to poach them in the baking soda solution so they need to fit into your pan.) To shape, take a piece of dough and start forming a nice round, smooth ball by pulling the sides to the center and pinching to seal. By doing this, you’re creating a smooth skin around the dough ball.

Place, pinched side down, on a counter and lightly cupping your hand around the dough ball, rotate your hand in small circles lightly rolling the ball around the palm of your hand. This takes some practice. Space evenly on the prepared sheet pans, pinched seam side down, leaving at least 1” between each roll.

Second rise: Cover with a tea towel or a light film of plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes until doubled.

Preheat oven to 425°F and place oven racks on the lowest and middle positions.

Poaching: In a large saucepan, bring 2 quarts of water to a low boil. Add the baking soda and lower heat to a simmer. Carefully slip the rolls into the poaching liquid, seam side down. Poach for 30 seconds then carefully turn the roll over in the liquid. Poach other side for 30 seconds then remove with a spider or slotted spoon to the same prepared sheet pans, seam side down. Repeat with the remaining rolls, leaving at least 1” between rolls for baking.

Glaze: With a pastry brush, glaze each roll completely with the lightly beaten egg making sure to coat all sides completely. Top each roll with a sprinkle of pretzel salt. With a sharp straight edged knife, cut a slash or “X” in the top of each roll.

Bake: Bake the rolls for 15-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking – top to bottom, front to back – for even browning. Cool completely. Rolls are best eaten on day of baking but they store pretty well in the freezer, tightly wrapped. Reheat in a damp paper towel for 30 seconds in the microwave.

The Bread and Butter

I wanted to make a fresh loaf of bread to go with my homemade butter, but didn't want to wait for it to rise overnight. I asked around on a cooking message board and Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles recommended this recipe. Boy am I glad I asked. This recipe was easy to follow and from start to finish it took about 5 hours, which was much better than the 2 day recipes I was finding. The result was an awesome, crusty white bread. I think I baked it a little too long, but it was still very good. Also, I did not use a stone, I just baked it on a cookie sheet.

Bread and butter anyone?

Pain Ordinaire

From: The Way the Cookie Crumbles

(adapted from Ultimate Bread, by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno)

Ingredients:

3½ cups (17½ ounces) bread flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1⅓ cup water, room temperature

1½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

Stir the yeast into 1¾ cup (8¾ ounces) of the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add all of the water, stirring until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 20 minutes, or until the mixture becomes frothy, loose, and slightly expanded.

Add the remaining flour and the salt to the mixture. Stir (or mix on medium-low speed with the hook attachment) for 1 minute, or until the ingredients form a ball.

Lightly dust the counter with flour, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mix on medium speed with the dough hook). Knead for about 10 minutes (6 minutes by machine), adding flour, if needed, to make a dough that is smooth, shiny, and elastic.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1½ to 2 hours. Press to deflate, then let rest for 10 minutes.

Gently pat the dough into a rough rectangle. Fold the bottom third of dough, letter style, up to the center and press to seal, creasing surface tension on the outer edge. Fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over. Press evenly with the palms of both hands and roll the dough backward and forward until it is 14 inches in length. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Place the loaf on the pan and lightly dust with flour. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof at room temperature for about 1 hour, or until the loaves have grown to about twice their original size.

About half an hour into the second rise, place a baking stone* on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Using a very sharp knife or a serrated bread knife, cut 5 diagonal slashes, each about ¼ to ½-inch deep, across the top of the loaf. (Alternatively, cut one long slash that extends for the length of the loaf.)

Transfer the dough on the parchment paper to a peel or the back of a sheet pan. Transfer the dough to the baking stone. Close the oven and reduce the temperature to 450 degrees. Bake until golden brown and the temperature is at least 200 degrees** at the center.

Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack and cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.

*If you don’t have a baking stone, simply bake the loaf on a baking sheet at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

**If you don’t have an instant-read thermometer, tap the bottom of the hot baked loaf. It should sound hollow when the bread is done baking.

Beer Cheese Bread

We're about to get some snow and when I think of snow, I think of soup. So dinner tonight is soup and bread. I didn't want to mess around with a yeast bread, so I decided to give this recipe a go. It was super easy and super tasty. I would recommend buying a block of cheese and grating it yourself - the pre-shredded stuff has a powdery stuff on it and it won't incorporate as well in the bread.

I *may* have snuck a piece before dinner - hey I can't blog it if I haven't tried it right? - and it's delicious. I love that it took less than 10 minutes to get it in the oven and that included grating cheese. Try this bread soon - you won't be disappointed!

Cheesey Beer Bread

From: Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

12 oz beer

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 tbsp butter - melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and garlic powder. Add cheese. Slowly pour in beer and mix gently until all ingredients are moistened.

Spread dough in loaf pan and pour butter over top. Bake for 55-60 minutes.

Buttermilk Biscuits

One of our favorite breakfast foods is biscuits and gravy. Until recently I've been o.k. with using store bought canned biscuits. After reading a few recipes on blogs, I realized how easy biscuits could be. So I set out to find a great buttermilk biscuit recipe. I found Tyler Florence's recipe used ingredients that I always have on hand - except buttermilk which I now buy regularly.


My husband declared 'no more canned biscuits' after one taste of these. I have to admit they are so much better than the canned stuff, and not hard at all to make. I have adapted his recipe slightly because mine always seem to need a little more buttermilk than he calls for. I also use butter instead of shortening, and a little more than he called for.





Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 1tbsp butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400

In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients together with a fork. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add buttermilk. Quickly fold dry ingredients into buttermilk with your hands until a sticky dough forms. If dough does not come together, add more buttermilk - 1tbsp at a time - until all flour is absorbed.

Turn dough out onto floured surface. Gently fold the dough over itself 3 or 4 times to create layers. Roll dough out to 3/4-inch thick. Cut with a 3-inch biscuit cutter. Transfer dough rounds to a sheet pan. Gather scraps and repeat.

Make a dimple in the center to help the top rise evenly. Brush with butter. Bake for 17 minutes until golden brown.

Top with Sausage Gravy and enjoy!