These pretzels are making me thirsty...

Well, after a week off, I put my bread machine back to work.  Yesterday, I made soft pretzel dough and baked some pretty amazing pretzels!!  Puffy, light and just enough salt, these pretzels were very good as is, with a little honey mustard and even dipped in spaghetti sauce (believe me - it works!).  I think they'd also be great as sandwich bread, especially if eaten on the day they were made when they are light and fluffy. 

Bread Machine Soft Pretzels

*Follow your bread machine's instructions... mine calls for putting wet ingredients, sugar/salt then flour/yeast.

1 1/4 c water  (80 degrees F)
1 egg yolk (don't throw out the egg white as you'll use it as a glaze later)
1 T oil (I used canola)
2 T sugar
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
3 1/2 c bread flour
1 T active dry yeast OR 2 tsp bread machine yeast

Glaze:
1 egg white
1 T water

Toppings:
1 T kosher salt
1 T sesame seeds (optional)

1. Place ingredients into bread pan in the order requested by your bread machine's instruction manual. Choose the "dough" setting.

2. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 16 even pieces.  Flour your hands and form each piece into a 16 inch rope.  Cross the ends of the rope to make a loop; twist the crossed ends once and fold across the loop. 

3.  Place pretzels on a greased baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.  Whisk egg white and water together and brush each pretzel with glaze and sprinkle with topping(s).  Let rise until double in size, about 30 minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
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They came out really light and fluffy:  I had a difficult time getting the pretzels to form a 16 inch rope - they were more like 12 inches which is why my pretzels came out so puffy but I didn't mind that.  You could also try other toppings a la Auntie Anne's (cinnamon/sugar with butter, hot pepper flakes and chopped pepperoni, Parmesan cheese....). 

I wrapped mine up with wax paper which was a mistake - this morning the salt had melted away.  Will have to use tupperware or even parchment next time.

What topping would you put on your soft pretzel?  I think I might make a ham and cheese sandwich on mine.  Yum!

Chow for now! :)

Hi. My name is Lisa and I'm a carboholic.

So, I spent the last few days perusing through bread machine cookbooks.  Some recipes are asking me to buy gluten as an ingredient and I haven't found it in the grocery store yet so I am sticking to the cookbook that came with my Breadman becuase they keep things simple.

On Saturday I made foccacia to bring to my sister's place.  Nat was going to barbecue for dinner and we decided on a tomato salad with bread for lunch.  I brought over a 13x9 pan of homemade foccacia thinking they would have leftovers for the week.  Not so much.  Apparently bread goes very fast when we are together.  Here is a picture of the final product, before we gobbled it up. 

I baked the bread with a mixture of fresh basil, minced garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes and grated Parmesan cheese.  It was light and fluffy on the inside (to help soak up the juicy, freshly picked tomatoes from the garden) and crispy with great garlic and herb flavor on the outside.

Today, I looked through my book again and thought about trying another dough recipe in the Breadman.  Bagels!  I've lived in LA now for over four years and have yet to find a good bagel place.  I've found decent ones, those that will do when needed, but nothing like the bagels I love from NY.  I've heard it's the water, or the lack of humidity in the air.  Well, either my house is damp and my water is correctly filtered, or I have just figured out the secret to amazing bagels!  I decided to make plain and cinnamon sugar.  They came out really delicious.  They were soft and doughy on the inside with a nice brown crunch on the outside.

What are your favorite breads?  As you know I am a bread freak - I'd like to try some new ones... Feel free to share some of your favorites!

Chow for now! :)

Breadman - my new favorite appliance!

Hey friends,

I've taken a little over a week off from the blog to visit my dad in the mountains and had a lovely trip.  How was your fourth?  I ate more BBQ than I'd care to admit... Oh, who am I kidding, I LOVE food - I'll admit it!  Dad and I ate bbq brats, ribs and london broil, roasted zucchini, lots of white summer corn, delicious salads and even threw some Mexican food in for good measure.  All was good and so was the company.

After a big drive home yesterday and a brief stop at the grocery store, I decided to eat light but still want to cook something.  So I decided to make a fresh loaf of french bread with my new Breadman  to bring along with meatballs for dinner at my friend M's tonight!  I've had some great luck with the bread I've made so far... a loaf of feta and herb bread, a cinnamon almond sweet bread and pesto bread (made with fresh basil from my garden)...  I started it at 7 last night and it wasn't done until 10:30.  You better believe I tried a slice even if it was a little late to be carbo-loading...

I have to say - this bread came out awesome!  Crunchy exterior, light and fluffy interior just like a loaf of french bread from any bakery...

The Breadman is really easy to use, especially for someone like me who isn't a fan of measuring. You basically decide what size loaf to make, throw in a bunch of ingredients into the loaf pan and hit start. The machine kneads, rises and cooks the dough! It came with a bunch of recipes but now that I've tried a handful from the book, I'm thinking about venturing out and trying some new recipes


One of the the best things about this machine is that you can use it to just make dough (for instance if you want to make a braided challah *yes!* or dinner rolls). You just take the dough out after the kneading/rising process and continue preparing as you would have if you kneaded the dough yourself! One of the biggest issues for me when making bread from scratch is I'm never sure if the dough is the right consistency and I don't want to over-knead it.  This machine eliminates that problem for me.


Do you enjoy baking bread from scratch?  Tell me your favorite kinds - maybe I'll make them next time!

Chow for now! :)