jalapeno pretzels (one with none on top, just inside) are you sick of pretzels yet? matt isn't (in truth, me neither). this was our last holiday treat of 2008. just added the peppers and some of the juice plus a little taco seasoning, black pepper and chili powder.
the recipe i found had me rest the dough overnight in a plastic container. then i rolled them out into looooong ropes. this part takes forever i think because this dough needs to be so chewy at the end. what i ended up doing was rolling one, resting, rolling another, resting and so forth. switching the ropes one at a time.
then you pretzel them and let them rise for thirty minutes on a greased cookie sheet. supposedly they double in size, i felt mine only rose a tiny bit.
now they get a bath in 4 cups boiling water mixed with 2 tablespoons baking soda for 10 seconds.
they look a little dimply after the bath. now they're back on the sheet to get brushed with...
egg wash. one egg and a little bit of water and my nifty silicone brush.
after the egg wash you can put anything you want on them. salt, pepper, sesame seeds (my next try), etc.
matt wanted lots of salt on his and ate them with yellow mustard. i used kosher salt, but i think it would be better with pretzel salt or compound salt (might be the same thing). when he was finished, matt said these might be his new favorite thing i cook, edging out coconut curry soup.
mine had kosher salt and pepper on them (according to matt he's never seen pepper on a pretzel. and obviously that sort of thing should not be allowed). i decided to go with a parmigiana cheese sauce to dip mine in. i'm not a fan of mustard at all.
