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And we're off, ran to the store this morning to get some things to sous vide some New York steaks later today and some other things so the rest of my day would not be interrupted... ON TO PRETZEL MAKING!!!!

I got everything all set up, Mise en place, for you culinary artistes, careful to weigh out everything. Whipped out the kitchen aid, I miss using that thing, and dumped in the ingredients as instructed. Now, this felt weird, usually you combine WARM water with your yeast to bloom and add sugar to "feed" it, not here. My butter was cold, so I warmed it as there was no instruction to cream or melt. All the dry ingredients went in the bowl and I used the dough hook to combine them...then I added the softened butter and then the water. I got close to a ball but needed a tad bit more water to pull it together..now it's sitting in the oven, with the door propped open, no heat, just resting...will follow up later.......

https://www.flickr.com/photos/varekai/albums/72157680222913865

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2027/32688789732_a369ce84ab_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RNAAjY)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/RNAAjY) by Darin McMaster (https://www.flickr.com/photos/varekai/), on Flickr

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2493/32688789562_17c66b2d8f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RNAAh3)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/RNAAh3) by Darin McMaster (https://www.flickr.com/photos/varekai/), on Flickr

First try is over...  Now, I am a self professed pretzel connoisseur.  I grew up on Mister Pretzels, Rolled Gold and Snyders, I've tried others, some good, some sucked! I LOVE soft pretzels, When I would go to the mall, the first stop was wherever the soft hot pretzels were being made, BEFORE the crappy "Gourmet" ones came about. I ALWAYS have at least 2 bags of pretzels on hand, There is always a bag here next to me, they are my GO TO snack! So with ALL that being said, I am proud to say I FUCKING NAILED THIS!!!!! YEA, thats my horn, and YES it's tooting!   a tad overcooked for my liking but I was following directions, I'll tweak next time. so now I still have dough, I want to do some pretzel bites and make some hamburger buns. And when thats gone I'll make more!  A big thank you to @5onia for the recipe and @Cellar2ful for the "challenge"... This was fun!!!

below takes you to a video in my pretzel album

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/432/32806915856_708876a11d_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RZ327h)O.M.G.!!!!  NAILED IT! (https://flic.kr/p/RZ327h) by Darin McMaster (https://www.flickr.com/photos/varekai/), on Flickr

That looks amazing, and it does look like you nailed it! Great job!

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Yep you so fucking nailed it,  looks amazing!!!! Now I'm craving pretzels My first attempt at pretzels ended up in the trash Well done!!


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You've got some completion coming your way!!!  Just wrapped up my pretzel cook too.  I'll post soon.  Yours looks amazing!!!!!

@MikeRocksTheRed , LOL, Bring it Bud!!  Cant wait to see yours, did you bake them on a grill? I ended up doing mine in the oven... maybe tomorrow on a grill.

@5onia , Thank you!!  Your the reason this came about!  And Jim, @Cellar2ful

Quote from: varekai on February 11, 2017, 05:08:53 PM
@MikeRocksTheRed , LOL, Bring it Bud!!  Cant wait to see yours, did you bake them on a grill? I ended up doing mine in the oven... maybe tomorrow on a grill.

@5onia , Thank you!!  Your the reason this came about!  And Jim, @Cellar2ful

Did I bake them on the grill???  LOL.  Of course I did.  Used almost a full 18.6lb bag of KBB on the Ranch!!!! 


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@MikeRocksTheRed , dang... you get extra points for that.  I know the other day you weren't sure you'd get too.  But you know the drill, no pics, didn't happen!...LOL

I've got pics.  Here's a crumb for you until I do my full post!!!!

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170212/e5bc107021e21bb4c948da8ac8ae3b97.jpg)


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Quote from: MikeRocksTheRed on February 11, 2017, 06:08:03 PM
I've got pics.  Here's a crumb for you until I do my full post!!!!

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170212/e5bc107021e21bb4c948da8ac8ae3b97.jpg)


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NICE!!!  ;D ;D ;D  Looks like yours turned out great too!!  Can't wait to hear all about it!

Some good some bad.  Definitely some lessons learned and nailed one batch.  I didn't use any Smoke wood and Dennis and I didn't really notice any Smoke flavor so I think the next pretzel cook might be in the oven.  Was fun to do it on the grill though.  Especially since it was my first cook over 90 degrees grill temp on my ranch.  My first two smokes in it didn't have a single charcoal! 


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Mike, I hear what your saying about doing the next round in the oven but I wonder if it would still be better on the RK? I don't own one but I'd look at the extra capacity and think of it as a time savings. Lots of staging and destaging with the oven. Am I on to something here?


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Kudos to @varekai and @MikeRocksTheRed for taking on the challenge.  Bonus points to Mike for using the RK. BTW, it actually was @Travis who threw down the challenge but @5onia deserves all the credit for the original idea.

   

@Travis , Thats right, it was, good idea!! I had a blast... maybe tomorrow it'll be nicer out and I'll try the ranch version.

Looks amazing  !!

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Dang! That looks awesome!! We are making ours this morning before we head out for the day so I'll be posting some pics tonight.

Great job @varekai !! And looking forward to seeing yours @Mike RocksTheRed !!


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Quote from: kettlebb on February 11, 2017, 06:30:05 PM
Mike, I hear what your saying about doing the next round in the oven but I wonder if it would still be better on the RK? I don't own one but I'd look at the extra capacity and think of it as a time savings. Lots of staging and destaging with the oven. Am I on to something here?


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I think the oven might actually be able to fit more pretzels if you did multiple racks.  I also think some of our pretzels were a little bigger than they needed to be so we could fit more at a time if we made them a little smaller next time...maybe a the same amount of dough per pretzel, but roll it out thicker and end up with smaller pretzels as far as surface space they take up.

@varekai  -  I finally had time to look through all of your pics!  Everything looks great!  Did you put a little flour on your pretzels so they wouldn't stick as you formed them before dipping them?  All of mine stuck to the parchment after forming them.  I'm not sure if we needed a little more flour in the dough overall or just needed a slight dusting once formed so they wouldn't stick.  The bottoms of mine came out exactly the same as yours.

That was a fun cook and I'm still tickled over it a day later.  It was interesting to see the difference in color between our pretzels and @Travis's since he used baking soda.  Did you see my albino pretzel that apparently I forgot to dip?  LOL.  I swear I dipped all of them.  That one might have been dipped in the last round after the lye solution had settled a bit.  If I am remembering correctly I pushed the second pretzel of that round into the water up and down a few times to stir up the lye that had settled.  I haven't tried that one yet, I'll have to see if it still tastes the same or not.  It smells like a pretzel, but it was also in a bag with the other leftover pretzels.

Makes sense Mike. All the pretzel cooks looked great fellas!


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@MikeRocksTheRed , no flour, but I only made four for a test run...I loaded them onto a wire skimmer and let them into the lye bath one at a time and pushed them under a couple times and removed to a parchment lined cookie sheet... I was also trying to find a weight that made a decent size. So after the initial 4 I was pretty stoked but had to start dinner, I want to make some pretzel buns with the remaining dough for burgers and more pretzels of course. This was a blast!!