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Vegan/Nut-free
Skill Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Yield: 12 pretzels and about 1 cup of sauce
Prep Time: About 40 minutes hands on/2-2 1/2 hours rising time
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Equipment Needed:
Kitchen scale (optional, but helpful)
Bench scraper (optional, but I find it very useful when making breads)
The Recipe:
This recipe is a modified version of a recipe from America's Test Kitchen.
Ingredients:
For the zesty mustard sauce:
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons salt
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed with the flat side of a knife
3 whole cloves
5 black peppercorns
1/4 cup mustard powder
1/4 cup whole-grain mustard
For the pretzel dough:
3 3/4 cups bread flour
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup baking soda
For the everything-bagel seasoning:
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon onion flakes
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Procedure:
Make the zesty mustard sauce:
Bring the vinegar, sugar, honey, water, salt, garlic, cloves, and peppercorns to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Once the mixture has come to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Use a rubber/silicone spatula or wooden spoon to press on the solids, then discard solids.
Whisk in the mustard powder and whole-grain mustard until smooth. Allow mustard to sit at room temperature for about an hour before transferring it to the fridge.
Make the pretzels:
Heat the water to approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to do this in the microwave (heat in 10-second increments, checking the temperature in between).
Add 2 tablespoons oil and sugar to the water; whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the bread flour, salt, and yeast together.
With the dough hook attached, start your mixer on its lowest speed. Slowly add the water mixture to the flour mixture while the mixer is running. Continue mixing until a dough starts to form and you cannot see any more dry flour, stopping the mixer at least once to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber/silicone spatula.
Increase speed to medium-low and knead for about 8 minutes. While your mixer is kneading, lightly grease a large bowl or container.
Transfer your dough to a lightly floured counter and knead by hand for about 30 seconds. Transfer your dough to your greased bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set your bowl of dough in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
7. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Your next step is to divide your dough into 12 sections as evenly as possible. Here are two ways you can do this:
With a kitchen scale (my preferred method): Place a clean bowl on a kitchen scale and zero it out. Transfer your dough to the scale to get it's total weight, then divide by 12 to determine how much each of your portions of dough should weigh. Next, transfer the dough to a clean counter and cover loosely with a piece of greased plastic wrap to avoid it drying out. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut portions of dough off of the large ball of dough and weigh them, adding or subtracting as necessary until you get the right size.
Without a scale: Alternatively, you can press and stretch the dough into a rectangle as evenly as you can manage, then use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 strips, trying to keep them as equal as possible.
8. Working with one of your dough sections at a time, stretch and roll the dough piece into a rope that is about 22 inches long and even thickness throughout.
9. Shape the rope into a "U" shape. Bring the two ends of the U towards one another and cross the right side over left, then cross the new right side over left once more.
10. Take the ends in your hands and flip your crisscrossed section over, so the two ends are now facing down towards the bottom of your U. Bring them all the way down to rest on the bottom of the U, pressing them firmly into the dough.
11. Transfer the shaped pretzel to one of your prepared baking sheets with the knot side facing up, then repeat this process with the remaining portions of dough.
12. Loosely cover your sheets of pretzels with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise until puffy, about 15 minutes.
13. Adjust two oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
14. Add four cups water and 1/4 cup baking soda to a Dutch oven and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
15. Transfer four pretzels to the boiling water with the knot side facing down. Cook for about 15 seconds, then carefully flip pretzels and cook an additional 15 seconds.
16. Transfer boiled pretzels to a cooling rack and repeat this process with the remaining 8 pretzels. Allow pretzels to rest for 5 minutes.
17. While pretzels are resting, make the Everything Bagel seasoning by combining the Kosher salt, poppy seeds, granulated garlic, onion flakes, and sesame seeds in a small bowl.
18. Remove the parchment paper from the now-empty baking sheets and sprinkle about 1/2 a teaspoon of the seasoning onto each sheet.
19. Transfer six pretzels to each sheet, knot side up. Sprinkle remaining (or desired amount) Everything Bagel seasoning on top of the pretzels.
20. Bake pretzels until they are a deep brown, 15-20 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, switch and rotate the baking sheets.
21. Transfer pretzels to a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.
Your pretzels can be stored in a sealed bag on the counter for 1-2 days, or wrapped individually in foil and frozen in a freezer bag for up to 2 months.
To Serve: Serve these tasty everything-seasoned ballpark pretzels alongside your zesty mustard sauce for dipping, or with any other dip of your choosing (I also love an ooey gooey cheese dip). My kids like just eating them plain!
Tips:
The longer you let the mustard sauce sit at room temperature, the spicier it will get, so if you like a very spicy sauce you can try leaving it out longer before refrigerating.
Be sure to use whole-grain mustard vs. traditional yellow mustard in the mustard sauce.
Bread flour has a higher protein content that all-purpose flour and is designed for baking yeasted breads. It's ultimate purpose is to give your bread better rise and tenderness. You can substitute all-purpose flour for the bread flour in a pinch, just be aware that your pretzel dough might not rise quite as high.
The first time I made these pretzels, I used dark brown sugar, which is what the original recipe called for. While this produced a more mahogany-colored pretzel, which I liked, I didn't feel like the dough rose as well and it also felt harder to work with when we were rolling out the pretzel ropes. The next time I made them, I used granulated sugar instead and I liked how the dough rose better, and thought it was easier to shape. This could very well be due to other factors, or could have even all been in my head :) but I'll probably continue to opt for granulated sugar.
If you are not a fan of everything-bagel seasoning (we can still be friends), you can substitute Kosher salt or a flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, for a more traditional ballpark pretzel. Play around with your pretzel seasonings and create your own masterpiece!
Giving the pretzels a quick boil in a baking soda bath contributes to their chewy texture, deep brown outer crust, and overall pretzel-flavor.
In my opinion, one of the most challenging parts of this recipe is rolling out that long rope and trying to make it nice and even before you twist it into the pretzel shape. If you are making this recipe with kids (and you should, mine really loved helping), I would suggest either fully rolling out the ropes for them, or letting them do a little bit but then you take over because it was pretty hard for my kids to make even ropes that were long enough and they got a little frustrated at times. I took my dough portions and put them on the clean counter in front of me, then used my palms to roll the dough quickly towards me and then away from me, as though I was making a "playdough snake," if that analogy works for you. If I noticed one section was a little thicker, I would one or both palms to that section and try to even it out. In general, I would start with my palms close together, then move them progressively further apart as I rolled, towards the outer edges of the rope. Trying to make the ropes as even in thickness as possible is important; I noticed a few of the ones my kids did that had some skinny sections got a little overdone on those sections.
If you have a flexible/slotted spatula, that works well for transferring the pretzels in and out of the baking soda bath.
The Story:
The sun is FINALLY shining, the temperature is moderately nice outside, the snow from our huge Minnesota blizzard last week is disappearing, and today is the Twins home opener! I figured my post this week better tip a baseball cap to this event, and what better way to do that with some chewy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside ballpark pretzels.
As I mentioned in the tips section, this is a recipe that is really fun to make with kids. Letting go of control (especially over my food) is something that does not come super easily to me, so this was a good exercise in patience and not dwelling on perfection for me as well as fun for them. They loved eating their warm, chewy pretzels just as much as they delighted in making them.
My husband and I are huge fans of horseradish and anything spicy, and this zesty mustard sauce really delivers. The contrast of these everything-seasoned pretzels with the zesty mustard sauce is truly a match made in heaven. I hope you have a chance to try this recipe during baseball season, or any season!
Happy tasting!
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