Me and My Pretzel

For those of you who read my blog last week, you know that Pretzel is a traditional sweet bread shaped like a pretzel and served in the Amana Colonies. When I mentioned the tradition, I said I might try making one to celebrate New Year’s. Much to my husband’s delight, I carried through with the idea. So below are some pictures of me making pretzel—well they’re mostly pictures of dough, but you’ll get the idea. I must confess I was a little worried when I began my adventure into Pretzel-land because my husband, who is always willing to do the grocery shopping, purchased the yeast for me. However, I didn’t specify the type of yeast. So instead of active dry yeast, I ended up with rapid rise. I wasn’t certain how it would work for this recipe, but decided I couldn’t ask him to trek back out in the sub-zero weather. Overall, I think things worked out pretty well, but since I’ve never tasted a real Amana pretzel, I can’t say mine is perfect—at least not with any authority.

Since New Year’s has passed, I didn’t include the recipe, but if any of you are interested, just shoot me a note and I’ll be sure you have it by next New Year’s eve. So, first you mix the dry ingredients. If you’re using the rapid rise yeast, you use a thermometer to make sure the liquid is hot enough, but that’s not a deal breaker if you use regular yeast. So here I am after the dough has been formed into a ball and I’ve begun the arduous task of kneading. Now, it says to knead for twenty minutes, but I’m here to tell you that unless you’ve got a mixer with a dough hook or really strong upper arms and non-arthritic fingers, twenty minutes is going to kill you. After only fifteen minutes, I felt like I’d completed a kneading marathon. As you can see in the pictures, my dough didn’t suffer any because I skipped those last five minutes. I had to let the dough rest for ten minutes so I did like they said and covered the pan with a nice white cloth—I was sure glad I had a white cloth on hand. Probably wouldn’t have worked with blue or plaid. Anyway, after ten minutes I divided the dough and rolled it into four ropes. They weren’t exactly equal, but I tried. Then I shaped them into pretzels and had to cover them again—bring out the second white cloth—and let them rise until double. Next I popped them in the oven and let them bake. As you can see, when they come out of the oven, they looked more like a bulb for a Christmas tree than a pretzel. But don’t worry about the appearance cause it didn’t hurt the taste one bit.

Again, if you read my last week’s post you know that among the Amana colonists there is a little bit of disagreement about whether the white frosting should be topped with chopped nuts or coconut. Wanting to be fair, I put half of each on this one. Now, I’m going to be real honest. Pretzel is good, but four of them for two people proved a little much. I did slice one up and make it into French toast for my husband yesterday morning and he thought it was a hit. And I think it would make a fine bread pudding—another of my favorites. Next year I think I’ll cut the recipe in half, but it was fun to expand my horizons and try a new tradition.

May you find joy as you expand your horizons with the Lord. ~Judy

P.S. And after looking at these pictures, I'm thinking Santa should bring me some new cookie sheets next year.