(Homemade) Pretzel Pahhhty!

Homemade Hard Wheat Pretzels 

Really pretzels, REALLY?!  You're processed!  I would have expected that from snack-food aisle neighbor, the potato chip, but you?  C'mon now, I expected more from you.  Hard, salty little bits of bread all knotted up, you should be more natural!  Shame on you...

Is what I've been thinking this week and I even bellyached a little about it over the weekend as it seems my favorite little snack food is off-limits this month for October: Unprocessed and I've been bummed.  I haven't missed too much by way of other processed items but the pretzel is the exception.  I've missed it dearly, really I have.  So when I posted about it, Mr. Unprocessed himself, Andrew Wilder, responded with "why don't you try making them".  I felt like I was hit over the head with the obvious: why don't I try making them?  I'm a good home cook, I should be able to do this, right?  Baking has to stop intimidating me!

A quick Google search first led me in the direction of soft pretzels and although delicious, it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I wanted the crackling and crunching that only a good hard pretzel can provide and my search stopped short at a recipe by Alton Brown.  It seemed easy enough and after a quick scan of the ingredients, I realized I had everything on hand that I needed (score!).  With that, I was off to my kitchen to get my bake on.

At about 4 hours latea of watching dough rise, kneading, boiling water, being dusted with flour and with my arms sore from rolling out bits of dough "snake-style", there they were; my first batch of homemade pretzels.  And my were they cute!  Twisted up and dusted with coarse sea salt and crushed dried rosemary (creative liberties), it was nothing like the store bought pretzels, it was way more delicious (does anything store bought ever beat out homemade?)  Tasting sort of like bread sticks, I would't say I'd be able to make them all the time but it's a nice little treat and a great way to help me satisfy my craving in a natural way.   For an added bonus, I even dipped a little coarse ground Grey Poupon on them to add an extra splash of tang.

With just a touch of grainy mustard..

Salty and tangy 

For the recipe, please click HERE.  (Please note, I also used white whole wheat flour and added crushed dried rosemary to mine.)