The first recollection of the pretzel creative process came my senior year in college with roomie Lisa and friend Brannen/on/an (I cannot remember how he spelled his name). I do not remember much more than me being the worst twister of the bunch. My ends would not stay together, my logs were too thin, the complications were numerous.
Next memory also has a little Lisa in it. At her wedding, her favors were cookie cutters tied to a little recipe book that had some of her and hubby's favorite foods (oatmeal cookies, possum and egg noodles some of the highlights). One of them was her recipe for pretzels. Now that I had a year or two of age on me, I thought I was mature enough to manage the twisting. Which I did (with Aaron's help) quite wonderfully. However, in the printing of the recipe, a critical step was left off. There was not baking the pretzels, so it was assumed by Aaron and I that after the dough was boiled, they were ready to eat. They were not. We tried boiling them longer, which made them more wet and spongy. Then we tried baking them but the damage had already been done. I later emailed Lisa and got the missing step, but always was a little leery that she had left another step off in a ploy to corner the market on her pretzels. Moral of the story, don't trust a Midwesterner with curly hair. (I love you, Lisa!)
Back to the Saturday...
Emboldened with a courage that can only come from a lack of anything else to do, I began looking for Lisa's pretzel recipe so I could make a batch. But wait...why make Lisa's when I could see if Bobby's was so good as to merit a Throwdown win? I checked out the recipe online and was happy to see I had all the needed ingredients, so to pretzel making I went. It is fairly simple to make...a lot like pizza dough. In fact, I bet it would make good pizza dough...or focaccia, mmm focaccia.
After letting the dough rise, it was time to test my twisting abilities. I did pretty well overall, with two or three casualties post-boiling that became cinnamon sugar pretzels. The boiling is where I veered from the recipe slightly. I used less baking soda in the water because I was almost out, and I did not see any adverse issues. I do not think the pretzels would have faired as well were it not for my use of a spider, which allowed me to remove the pretzels without breaking them. Popped them in the oven, waited patiently and look what came out...
Seriously. I mean, come on. You cannot get that at Auntie Anne's. The outside has a great crust, but not rubbery or dry (even after microwaving to reheat), the inside is dense, airy, salty with a little hint of sweetness. I wanted to eat them all.
And, if that were not enough, I had leftover cheese from an enchilada dinner so I made a version of the Queso Poblano sauce using chili powder and cayenne pepper instead of the poblano. I think it worked well - gave the sauce a nice orange hue, played well off the salty and hint of sweet of the pretzel. No wonder Bobby won this Throwdown. And, because the cinnamon sugar ones needed some dipping love, I made a quick glaze with powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract - yummy!
Since that Saturday, I have made another batch or two, each as successful as the first. Even though the recipe makes 8, I was did make 12 once, but that was pushing it. The less dough you use, the thinner the pretzel, and who wants a skinny pretzel? In addition, the thinner pretzels make it a little harder in the boiling - more apt to come apart during and after boiling (think getting penne out of water with a spoon vs. getting spaghetti out).
When Aaron tasted one, he exclaimed, "This is by far the best thing you have made since you moved here." (So maybe that was not word-for-word what he said, but it is the general tone and feeling he emoted.) And, I would have to agree. The question now is: who would win in a Bobby's pretzel throwdown -me or Bobby?
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