Pretzels

I found last night that I didn't have the required flour for the bread I wanted to make, but had already got some starter out of fridge and fed it to be used in the morning. I also realised that since I had a work function later in the day, whatever I was going to eventually make would need to take as little time as possible. I settled for Ed Wood's salty pretzels.

Here's how to make it:

480g starter

2 tablesspoons of oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

120ml water

420g all purpose flour

Mix, knead, separate dough in 10-15 bits and roll them into 30cm ropes. Put them on floured surface to rest for 1 to 1 and half hour.

Mix 55g of baking soda in a big pan of water and bring to boil. Gently put the pretzels in the water while simmering, and leave them only for a minute or so. Put them on kitchen towel or paper to drain the water, then sprinkle with salt. Transfer on baking paper when water is drained. slash the surface a couple of times.

Finally cook in preheated oven at 225C for 20 mins. (Ed Wood's book says 30-40mins, or until brown - mine would have burnt)

From start to finish it took just over 2 hours.

Give it a go, tastes really good!

ps: you'll notice my pretzels have dodgy shape, I blame that on my 10 month old who can't speak for himself, so cannot contradict me. hehe