It seems like there are some things that divide us. We are morning people or night owls, cilantro lovers or parsley fans, those who bake or those who cook. While I’m up for making chocolate chip cookies on occasion or whipping up a batch of lemon bars, most of the time I’m more interested in mincing garlic than sifting flour. But I recently noticed my copy of Joy of Vegan Baking and the recipe for soft pretzels and decided a change was in order. I took a trip to the co-op to buy flour, yeast, and coarse salt from the bulk bins. (I was a little worried that using active dry yeast from a bulk bin might not yield the best results, but it all turned out just fine.)
I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe, using white wheat flour instead of all-purpose and agave syrup instead of granulated sugar. (Since it is dissolved in water, it didn’t affect the liquid/dry ratio too much.) I kneaded, let the dough rise, formed it into shapes, dotted with salt, and baked.
What amazed me is how very easy it was! I remember when soft, twisted pretzels were all the rage at malls or even in home freezers, but I hadn’t realized that they could come together so easily. Sure, like anything that has to rise, some time has to be allowed for that, but other than that, there wasn’t much time on task. These chewy-on-the-outside and fluffy-on-the-inside pretzels would be sure to impress guests. Serve them hot out of the oven with mustard, hickory-smoked We Can’t Say It’s Cheese, or with peanut butter. They’re definitely at their best when they’re warm and fresh, but they were still good for a couple of days. What do you know? Maybe I could be a baking person after all.
Either you’re psychic, you’ve wiretapped my house, or you’ve planted spyware on my computer. Because when BW and I were in Fort Collins, we fell in love with the pretzel rolls at Whole Foods, were talking about them today, and so this afternoon I was surfing the interwebs for vegan pretzel roll recipes. First the reubens, now this! Maybe it’s a vegan mind-meld thing (as opposed to a Vulcan mind-meld thing)… I have that with other vegan friends and fellow bloggers!
These look delicious, I must check out Colleen’s recipe! I don’t much care if they’re roll shaped, the ones you made look wicked fun. But do you think this dough would form into a dinner-roll shape?
Darn it, I was really hoping you wouldn’t find out about my wire-tapping until more time had passed. Nah, I’m kidding. Spock was vegetarian. It was totally the vulcan mind-meld.
I actually made a lot of different shapes with Colleen’s recipe – the traditional one, sticks, and flattened biscuit-like shapes. They all turned out great. So I think you’d do just fine making roll shapes with this recipe.
Spock was vegetarian. It was totally the vulcan mind-meld.
Sounds logical.
Thanks for the info, I’ll probably try the rolls and other fun shapes. Maybe I’ll even make a pointy pretzel Vulcan ear!
We passed a pretzel shop earlier today and the pretzels smelled so yummy…and then you had to go and post these pretzels that look so wonderful…so much temptation! I may have to break out my copy of JOVB and try this recipe.
P.S. Super cute bowl!
I’m sure you could find some friends who would be willing to share a batch of hot pretzels with you! That would limit the amount of guilt to this pleasure.
P.S. Thanks! The bowl was made by the same artist who made the lidded vessels in my recent “5 little things making me happy” post. I love her work and the cute little buttons on the bowl.
Ooh, these would be great with a cheese sauce. I have a sauce on my site that would go perfect with these and now…I’m drooling. I love soft pretzels.
If anyone can help me overcome my strange fear/dislike of soft pretzels, it’s definitely Colleen. Especially when paired with your photos of non-pretzel shaped pretzels.
I’d heard that there was someone out there who didn’t like soft pretzels. It’s nice to finally meet you!