As it is coming up to Mothers Day, I thought I would try and make these delicious vegan-friendly pretzels. I was surprised on how easy they actually were. As pretzels have the heart shaped look, what a perfect food to make for treat special mum or family gathering and you can top with sweet or savoury seasonings!
A pretzel is a type of bread made from a yeast dough then twisted into a knot, but did you know they orginate from Europe and not America?! Traditional Pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical loop shape, and suaully seasoned with salt. The Baking soda wash give it that skin type texture.
The hard crunchy pretzels did orginate in America, but they are so not the same as these soft bread type delicious pretzels. Pretzels have that slightly dence bagel type texture to them.
When out shopping and walking past a Aunti Annes or Mr Pretzel I do have to hold myself back to getting one, as they seem to have this gravitational pull! Since going vegan, they are no longer my friend due to the butter they tend to add to the pretzels.
Pretzels are so versitile you can srpinle on sea salt, sugar, cinnamn, chocolate, garlic and herb, onions, caramel, toffee, see the list is endless! I think you should make them and add you favourate flavours.
You can even get creative with dips too, like cheese, chocolate, caramel, spicey nacho cheese, alfredo, BBQ - the list is just endless. This is why I love them so much!
I've always though of Pretzels being hard to make, but you know what the recipe below is fool proof, even I got it right the first time.
Apart from the dipping into the Baking soda water, these are actually a great bake for the children to help with. My kids love helping me the kitcehn specially when it comes to kneading dough and making desserts, although they would have prefered all the pretzels to be sweet and chocolatey.
Ingredients:
2 Tsp Fast Acting Yeast
1 Tsp Sugar
225ml Warm Water
500g Plain Flour
50g Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
1 1\2 Tsp Oil
25g Baking Soda
400ml Hot Water
15g Sea Salt
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Cinnamon
50g Dark Chocolate
Add yeast, warm water and teaspoon sugar in a bowl, stir and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes, Add flour, sugar and salt and oil to a large bowl, mix in the yeast mixture
Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic
Allow to double in size for about an hour
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 8 pieces, easy to cut into quarters, then 8ths.
Roll the dough into a rope and twist into a heart shape
In bowl add hot water and baking soda, then dip the heart shaped dough in the baking soda water and place onto a baking tray.
Sprinkle on the sea salt
Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon
Sprinkle the brown sugar cinnamon over the pretzel.
Continue, making 4 pretzels of each salty and sweet.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown at 200c
Melt dark chocolate and then drizzle over the sweet sugared pretzels
The pretzels will keep for about 4-5 days, enjoy!
Salty and Sweet soft Pretzels home made and vegan friendly