Pretzels and Pretzel Pups

For months now my mom has been talking about wanting to make pretzels, and since she planted that seed in my head I've been wanting to make them as well. I've certainly never been one to turn down an opportunity to eat a twisted mass of dough. Or dough in pretty much any form, but that's beside the point. My mom wanted to make pretzels, and my brothers and I were happy to assist. Although the process of making something like pretzels or bagels can seem a little daunting at first, once you've done it a couple times it's really no big deal. You just throw everything in a mixer (or not, as my brother has successfully made pretzels sans any sort of special equipment), let it rise, shape it, boil it, and bake it. If you have 5 people working together to do the shaping, it takes no time at all and can be really fun.

After it was settled that we would be making pretzels, my brother mentioned the bagel dogs from Einstein's, and that got the ball rolling on pretzel project #2. Way back when we would buy bagel dogs from Ted, the Schwan's man, but I think Kyle was too busy picking his nose and eating it to remember that. Roasted! Besides, bagel dogs are so fifteen years ago. Pretzel dogs are the new thing. Pretzel pups, rather. Forget about those dried up hot dogs sitting behind the plastic case at Einstein's. Pretzel pups are the real deal.

My mom almost drove into town to pick up smokie links for the pups because she sometimes gets cravings for things we used to feast on back in the 80s (Cheez Whiz, Chef Boyardee ravioli, Bugles), but after discovering a package of Niman Ranch hot dogs in the freezer we decided to just use those. It turns out, not surprisingly, that Niman Ranch makes some top notch hot dogs. I think they actually call them Fearless Franks, but let's be honest, they're hot dogs. As the old saying goes, you can put lipstick on a hot dog, but it's still a hot dog. Am I right?

By the way, I don't mean to turn all Rachael Ray on you by making up a cutesy name like Pretzel Pups. I just felt like busting out a little alliteration. A little alliteration: an oxymoron? Anyway, puppies are so cute, so why not name foods after them?

The pretzel recipe we used is from Bobby Flay, and you can find it here. We doubled the recipe, but we didn't follow it to a T. Instead of muscovado sugar we used regular brown sugar, we didn't have the full amount of yeast so we used slightly less, and we certainly did not use 3/4 cup of baking soda in the boiling water. I don't think using all of that baking soda would hurt anything, but for some reason my brother was adamantly opposed to using so much. In the end it all worked out, and that's what matters.

Soft Pretzels

Slightly adapted from Bobby Flay

1-1/2 cups warm water

1 package active dry yeast

2 tbsp brown sugar

6 tbsp unsalted butter

2-1/2 tsp kosher salt

4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

Olive oil

About 3 quarts water

About 1/4 cup baking soda

2 whole eggs beaten with 1 tbsp cold water

Coarse sea salt or pretzel salt

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add the water, yeast, and sugar. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes so the yeast activates. You could also melt the butter in advance and just combine the four ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.

After the 5 minutes, add the butter mixture to the bowl of a mixer. Add the salt and flour 1/2 or 1 cup at a time, mixing to combine. Once you've added all of the flour, increase the speed to medium for 3 or 4 minutes or until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

If the dough is too wet and not pulling away from the sides after a few minutes you can add more flour in small increments. It will look something like the photo above when it starts to pull away. Remove the dough from the bowl, and transfer it to a flat surface to knead with your hands.

Ahh! My brain has been sucked out of my skull! Unfortunately my numerous talents do not include the ability to cross my eyes, so the whole brain-outside-of-the-skull trick did not work as I had hoped.

Knead the dough a few times and form it into a ball. It should be pretty smooth at this point.

Drizzle some olive oil or vegetable oil in a bowl, add the dough, and turn the dough to coat it. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and set it in a warm spot for about an hour, or until the dough doubles in size.

While the dough is rising, cover a couple baking sheets with parchment paper and spray the paper with cooking spray. Toward the end of the rising period preheat the oven to 425, and turn the heat on under a large pot of water and baking soda.

Pretzel making is fun for the whole family! I'll spare you the more obscene pictures that you can imagine ropes of pretzel dough would produce.

Once the dough is ready, all you have to do is tear of chunks about the size of an orange and roll it into ropes. You could also turn out the dough onto a flat surface and divide it into eight equal pieces, but what fun is that?

Look at that thing fly!

Form the ropes into pretzel shapes (you can add another twist in the middle if you prefer), and they're ready to boil.

Boil the pretzels two at a time for 30 seconds in the water and baking soda.

After boiling, transfer the pretzels to one of the lined baking sheets and brush with the egg wash. Sprinkle liberally with salt or other toppings. My brothers put some minced fresh garlic on a couple of them. Grated cheese would be good, too.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown. Let them cool for a few minutes before diving in.

Did I mention there was cheese sauce involved? Because there was. My mom would never consider making pretzels if there was not cheese sauce. The original recipe makes a poblano cheese dip, but we didn't have poblanos so we used pickled jalepenos. There was a mustard sauce as well, but I prefer plain old yellow mustard to the sweet, grainy mustard sauce from the recipe.

For the pretzel pups, follow the same steps as above for regular pretzels. The only difference is that you wrap a rope of dough around a hot dog instead of forming it into a pretzel shape. Everything else is the same. Boil the dough with the dog in it, brush it with egg wash, sprinkle with salt, bake until golden, etc. Please, please, please do not skip the step where you make a rope with the dough and just wrap a chunk of dough around the dog or you will end up with more of a hot dog bun than a fully encased hot dog once they are baked. See the difference between the bottom one and the third from the bottom? The third from the bottom one was done properly.

P.S. My apologies to Ted, but homemade pretzel-wrapped hot dogs are so much better than frozen bagel dogs from your big, yellow truck.

P.P.S. If I one day get a wiener dog I am going to make him a pretzel dog costume for Halloween instead of the traditional hot dog costume.

Spicy + Sweet Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

On our way home from the apple orchard last weekend Matt and I stopped by a little pumpkin patch off the highway to see if the "Fresh Raspberries" sign was true and to check out their pumpkin selection. We were greeted by the incredibly nice grower who explained everything to us and showed off their harvest of what he called their "Martha Stewart pumpkin collection." Along with the regular carving pumpkins they had a huge wagon with the most amazing pumpkin varieties I've ever seen. I really wanted to buy one of every kind, but because neither Matt nor I has a place to put big pumpkins we ended up just picking up a couple pie pumpkins, a pint of the best raspberries I've had all summer, and a few mini versions of the Martha Stewart pumpkins.

This is everything we came home with. I was very, very happy.

Here's my favorite. It looks black, but it's actually a really dark green.

I've been debating what I want to do with my pie pumpkins for almost a week now. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli, mashed pumpkin... I'm a little indecisive. After drinking my first pumpkin latte of the year yesterday I was inspired to take action, and today I actually got around to cutting into one and making toasted pumpkin seeds.

Spicy + Sweet Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Adapted from Simply Recipes and 101 Cookbooks

Fresh pumpkin seeds

Olive oil

Salt

Sugar

Cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.

Here's the lucky pumpkin.

Slice off the stem, and then slice the pumpkin in half lengthwise.

Scoop out all of the seeds with a metal spoon, and separate them from the stringy flesh. I was surprised by how easy this process was.

Scrape out all of the stringy stuff and save the shells for roasting.

Rinse the seeds and pick out any flesh that might remain.

Add the seeds to a saucepan with 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon of salt for each 1/2 cup of seeds. I had about a cup of seeds, so I added 4 cups water and 2 tablespoons of salt. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

While the seeds are simmering drizzle a rimmed baking sheet with a little olive oil.

After simmering for 10 minutes drain the seeds.

Then spread them on the baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and sugar, and then add a few dashes of cayenne. Stir to coat. Place on the top rack of the oven, and bake for 10-15 minutes or until browned to your liking. I took the seeds out to stir them about 10 minutes in and they were a little soft, but after 15 minutes they were perfect.

I think toasted pumpkin seeds taste a lot like popcorn, and with the sugar they're kind of like kettle corn. They're pretty irresistible. I have a feeling that by tomorrow when Matt gets home from his weekend of shooting pheasants they're going to be gone.

Trail Mix

My friend Dani had some trail mix with her today, and it looked so good that I had to make my own.  I was really happy to find a combination of my favorite nuts already mixed in one of the bulk bins at the grocery store.  It had walnuts, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts (haselnuss for all you Germans out there), and almonds.  I also got some Kashi and M&Ms, and I had some pumpkin seeds at home.  

Add as much of each ingredient as you like.  Mix it all together, and you've got trail mix.  It's so easy even Nadya Suleman could do it.  Boom.  Roasted.  

Kale Chips

Simple, healthier than your average chip, and delicious.  That's what I have to say about kale chips.  My mom recently discovered these, and she has been obsessed ever since.  I gave them a try yesterday, and I could not stop eating them.  

Here's what you'll need:

Kale

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Optional ingredients:

Vinegar

Parmesan

Preheat oven to 250.  Rinse and dry the kale.  I used about six or seven leaves.

Cut out the thick part of the stem, or just tear off the leaves from around the stem.  Tear pieces that are the size of your average potato chip, and put them in a big bowl.  

Drizzle with olive oil.  Start out with just a little, then add more as needed.  

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Mix well.  

I had to add a little more olive oil so the leaves were all coated, but you don't want them to be drenched.  

Lay them out on some sort of rack over a pan.  I used a cooling rack and a cookie sheet, and it worked well.  

I sprinkled a little grated Parmesan on a few of them.  My taste buds are still fairly nonfunctional from my never-ending cold, so the verdict is still out on whether the Parmesan addition was good or not. 

Bake for about 20 minutes.  They'll be really light and airy.  Most of them were crisp, but the ones that still had a little chewiness to them were my favorite.  

Simple Samosas

The first samosa I ever ate was at a little food stand just outside the gates to the Taj Majal.  It was unbelievable.  Since that day about six years ago I've been a huge fan of the fried, potato-and-pea-filled bundle of goodness that is a samosa.  I find them hard to resist at any Indian restaurant.  When I lived in Chicago I frequently ordered take-out from the neighborhood Indian restaurant, and I would generally order a salad to compensate for the deep-fried appetizer I would inevitably order.  My mom and I tried making them a few years ago, and while they were delicious, they were pretty hard work.  Definitely something you would only make everyone once in a while.  

Much to my surprise, I recently discovered a samosa recipe in a Thai cookbook I, um, acquired from my parents' basement.  Instead of making a dough, you just use filo pastry or something of the like.  They're also baked and not fried, so I feel much less guilty for eating them.  While they're certainly not on the level of a steaming hot one outside of one of the seven wonders of the modern world, they're not a bad stand-in when you're pressed for time and trying to be a little healthy.

Here's what you'll need:

1 large potato or a handful of little ones, diced

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

4 tbsp coconut milk

1 tsp Thai red curry paste

3/4 cup peas

Juice of 1/2 lime

25 wonton wrappers*

1 tsp coriander (optional)

Salt & pepper

*This is what I used because it was the closest thing they had at the grocery store, and I didn't feel like making another stop.  The actual recipe calls for either samosa wrappers or 4"x2" strips of filo pastry.  

Bring water to a boil in a small pan, add the potatoes, cover, and boil for 10-15 minutes or until tender.  Once tender, drain and set aside.

Heat a little oil in a pan over medium heat, and add the garlic and shallots for about 5 minutes, or until golden.

If you're using frozen peas make sure to thaw them first.  Nothing like stating the obvious, right?  I didn't measure them - just kind of guessed what 3/4 cup looked like.  

Add the potatoes, peas, coconut milk, curry paste, and lime juice to the pan with the shallots & garlic.  Reduce heat to low.  The recipe calls for the juice of 1/2 lime, but next time I would either use a little less or leave it out altogether.  

Mix it all together, mashing if you please, and continue to cook for a couple minutes.  Season with coriander, salt & pepper, or whatever else sounds good to you.  Then remove it from the heat, and let it cool a little. 

Next come the wrappers.  I'm guessing that whatever samosa wrappers are would work better than wonton wrappers, but these are what I ended up using.  In case you can't tell, I'm no expert on cooking Asian food.  

Brush a little oil on the wrapper.

Then pile on about a teaspoonful of the mixture.  I just eyeballed it and adjusted as I went along.  

Brush a little more oil on where the edges will meet, and press them together.  I had a little bit of trouble getting the edges to actually stick together on some of them.  I'm not sure if I didn't keep the wrappers moist enough in the process or if they're just not meant for what I was using them for.  Regardless, I ended up with edible samosas.  

Once you have a nice tray of them, throw them in a 425 oven for 15 minutes or until golden.  

I kind of forgot about them for a few minutes after the timer went off, so I ended up with some slightly overdone edges.  Don't they look good though?  

I planned on making a cilantro chutney to dip them in, but then I got realistic about time and opted not to.  They're great plain, and they're also good dipped in peanut sauce.  And after we came back from the bars I discovered that they're not too bad dipped in plain yogurt.  But I'm not sure whether or not I would still feel that way outside the hours of 2AM and 5AM.  

Finally, I have to share my idea for any remaining wrappers (and maintain the more cheese aspect of the blog).  CHEESE WONTONS!  When I ran out of the potato mixture I threw some shredded parmesan cheese in a couple wontons.  They were sinful and delicious.  You should try it.  You deserve it.  

Bagel Chips

After I posted my bagel entry with the bagel chip recipe I realized that I had some pictures of the process that were still on my camera.  I thought I might as well put them up since I took them time to take them all.

Start by preheating the oven to 450, and then thinly slice the bagels. 

Lay them on a cookie sheet and brush them with olive oil.

Sprinkle on whatever herbs or spices you want.  Or leave them plain.  We made dill, salt & pepper, parmesan, and garlic.

Bake them for about 5 minutes until they start to brown around the edges.  Ours were a little overdone because my dad was standing in front of the oven and I thought I'd wait a minute instead of asking him to move.  They came out a little too done for my taste, by my mom likes things more done, so they were perfect for her.  

Another picture...

And the whole batch.  They were very easy to make and a great way to use up old bagels or to preserve them for longer.