Beer Pairing Recipes - Pretzels

As promised, here are a few recipes from my Charity Beer Pairing post.

Handmade Pretzels
3 Cups warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 1/2 Tbsp Yeast
6 1/2 Cups Flour

This is a pretty basic bread dough recipe, and pretty much any dough you have will work. Bloom the yeast for a few minutes, then stir in the flour and salt. Knead for a few minutes (the stand mixer is excellent for this) then set aside to rise for about 90 minutes. At this point, you can refrigerate the dough for up to two weeks* - just let it warm for an hour or so before proceeding.



*This dough is my catch-all bread dough. Pull a piece off, let it rise for 90 minutes, then bake at 450 for 30 minutes. You can also make it into rolls, just lower the temp to 425 and bake 15-20 minutes. Follow the directions for "pretzeling" below, and you have pretzel rolls.

Punch down the dough and knead into a solid ball. Take a piece about the size of a tangerine and roll it into a long snake. Keep some flour handy in case it sticks, but don't flour your rolling surface - it makes it harder to roll the dough.

I'm not sure how to describe the method for twisting a pretzel into the classic shape. I learned from this video from Auntie Anne's, and within a few attempts I was making decent looking pretzels. The pretzels are going to rise in the oven, so leave plenty of space in the loops or else you'll end up with gnarly looking knots instead of the pretzels you expected. Place finished pretzels on a greased cookie sheet and let rise 15-20 minutes.

The next part is what gives pretzels their distinctive coating and flavor. Basically, you expose the surface to a strong alkaline in the form of baking soda or lye (for more on the chemistry of this, I'll defer to the expert's expert in food chemistry, Harold McGee). My weapon of choice for this is lye, which will scare a lot of people, but if you stop at the Asian grocery you can pick up Chinese Lye Water that is relatively harmless but will suffice for making a nice crust. You can also boil them in baking soda water, but I haven't tried that technique, so we'll save that for another post. Brush the tops of the pretzels liberally with the lye water and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. This technique will give you a light crust and a nice pretzel flavor.

Bake the pretzels for 12-15 minutes at 425. The lye will break down into harmless compounds in the heat, leaving behind the characteristic brown shell.

To make the beer mustard, combine equal parts whole grain mustard, spicy brown mustard and the beer of your choice (in our case, the Red's Rye IPA). Boil down for a few minutes until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Next post, the chicken roulade...