Pretzel experiment

Our local brewery sells giant pretzels that you can buy frozen and take home. You spritz them with water, sprinkle on the salt and then pop them in the microwave for three minutes. Boom. Hot pretzel, and they even sell dips to use.

They are a bit pricey, and of course, Cheap Lauren wanted to try making them on her own. The recipe is really easy, and surprisingly it doesn’t take a whole day. Here it is, if you want to scroll through the big story and see it at the bottom.

I made some mistakes, but that’s ok. I’ll know more for next time. Mostly, I am incredibly proud of me for following the recipe to the letter. I know!

My big mistake was not rolling them out longer and thinner. I knew it as I was doing it but didn’t stop myself. I was mostly worried about them fitting in my giant fry pan of boiling baking soda water, but now I know to make three of them instead of two. Also, Lauren, don’t flour the rolling surface when you shape them.

The pan has 9 cups of water and 1/2 a cup of baking soda. It gave me a reason to repackage my old box of baking soda and say, “That’s a lot of b.s.”

Behold the aftermath of splashing boiling baking soda water all over.

Here’s the final product. As I said, mistakes were made. They are good with a dipping sauce, but they needed a bit more time in the oven, and since they were so globby, they browned unevenly. I worried the dark parts would be burnt before the rest browned.

I’ll do better next time.