It's a beer baking/making/cooking contest.
Here's the deal. Make a recipe {it must contain beer}. simple.
I'm feeling lucky. I won a free drink at bingo on Monday. totally.
Maybe I'll win a beer baking/making/baking contest. Who knows.
If you like me, like my recipe, want me to win, or you're just feeling extra nice, you can vote for my recipe here. no pressure.
These pretzels were a total experiment.
I've never made pretzels before. I've eaten many pretzels {who hasn't}, just never made them.
I did some research. I wrote some notes. I tweaked and simplified. I came up with a recipe.
It was good. It was tasty. As a general rule of thumb, flour, dough, yeast, and bread like things, are amazingly tasty warm.
On a scale of 1 to 10, those pretzels were a 7.
A 7 is o.k, but no good for a contest. I wanted a 10. I needed a 10 for my beer making/baking.cooking contest.
Last night {super late}, I recklessly decided to tweak the recipe.
Instead of using whole wheat flour, I decided to go for all white. I also added more beer. duh.
Pow. Smash. Crash. Pop. Pretzels. Awesome. Delicious. 10 out of 10. Warm, soft, salty pretzels with warm homemade honey mustard. say what? That's right, warm honey mustard to dip. I never thought honey mustard would be so easy to make. Turns out it is.
I also made you a diagram. Because, well, diagrams are cool.
Step one. form a dough ball.
SOFT BEER PRETZELS WITH WARM HONEY MUSTARD DIPPING SAUCE RECIPE
makes 8 pretzels
PRETZEL INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp dry active yeast
1/4 tsp white granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup of beer, room temperature
3 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups hot water
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg, beaten
coarse sea salt for topping
HONEY MUSTARD INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp Apple Cider vinegar
Remove the beer from the fridge and let sit until it gets to room temperature.
In a small bowl, add one tbsp of yeast, 1/4 tsp of sugar, and 1/4 cup of warm water. Stir the mixture and then let sit for 5 - 10 minutes, or until the yeast starts to foam. This is called {proofing} the yeast. You are trying to see if the yeast is still active.
In a large bowl, add the beer. I used Blue Moon a Belgium-style wheat beer, but you can probably use anything that tastes good. Once the yeast has proofed, add it to the beer and stir. The beer and yeast mixture should initially fizz for a couple of seconds. This is normal.
Next, add the flour and salt to the beer mixture and combine. If your dough is too sticky, then add more flour. If it's too dry add more water. You want to be able to knead the dough without it falling apart or sticking too much to your hands.
Place the dough on a floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes.
Place the dough into a oiled bowl, and then lightly oil the dough itself. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for one hour - make sure your bowl is large enough to allow room for the dough to double in size.
After the dough has doubled in size preheat the oven to 425ºF.
While the oven is preheating, tear the dough into 8 evenly sized balls. Roll each ball into a long thin narrow strip and shape into desired pretzel form - see step by step instructions above. The pretzels will rise a lot while baking, so roll the dough thin. Next, place the pretzels on a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of hot water and 1 tsp baking soda. Dip each pretzel into the water for 5 - 10 seconds, and then place it back on the baking tray. This process will make the pretzels crunchier and more caramel. Let them sit on the tray for 10 minutes.
Finally, brush the pretzels with one beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. The amount of salt is dependent on your taste.
Bake the pretzels for 15 minutes.
While the pretzels are baking, mix the mustard, honey, and vinegar in a small sauce pan on low to medium heat. Once warm the sauce is warm, remove from heat and serve as a dipping sauce for warm pretzels.
