Showing posts with label salt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salt. Show all posts

Monday, March 22, 2010

Soft Pretzels

Who doesn't love soft pretzels? They are always so tempting, but how do you know if they're fresh?

Easy, make them yourself.

I'd had this recipe on my "to-try" list since about December of 2008. It just kept getting shuffled to the bottom of the list because I tend to gravitate towards sweets (obviously).

Last month, my husband came home from a friend's birthday party raving over the soft pretzels. Wouldn't you know it, they were from the very same recipe I'd been wanting to try.

This month, we've been trying to make everything we eat at home from scratch. Homemade breads, sauces, pastas, etc. It seemed like the perfect time to finally retrieve this recipe from the bottom of the list, dust it off, and eat pretzels.

It certainly didn't disappoint. After a minor mishap with the yeast (I might've used 4 tbsp instead of tsp- whoops! Not to worry though, we used that activated yeast to make bread) everything went pretty much according to plan.

I was thrilled to roll out the pretzel dough and was pleasantly surprised to find that my "pretzel crossing" skills weren't gone, just dormant. (I worked at a bagel shop for about a year while in High School. Learning to make the pretzel bagels have that perfect cross seemed a useless skill at the time.)

The recipe yielded 8 big ole soft pretzels. If I make it again (ok, when I make it again) I think I'll go for smaller pretzels. The recipe also includes some delicious queso dipping sauce. Because if there's one thing that makes soft pretzels more yummy, it's hot spicy cheese. Mmmm.


Note: I used regular old light brown sugar from the grocery store, instead of Muscovado, and my pretzels came out just fine.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Chocolate Cupcake Day 2009

In case you didn't know, yesterday (10/18) was National Chocolate Cupcake Day. Yum!

My weekend was fairly busy and I wasn't sure I would have time to bake anything to celebrate. Sunday morning at 9:30 I thought, 'darn it, I have to bake something!'

I grabbed my Martha Stewart Cupcake book (a gift from my fabulous friend danger kitten and her husband) and rustled through to find a recipe that sounded intruiging. The problem? I was definitely low on ingredients.

Ultimately I chose my old standby- Martha's 1-bowl chocolate cupcakes. But to spice it up, I added toffee bits into the cupcakes. Then to frost them, I chose a Dark Chocolate Frosting (from Martha as well) with some sea salt on top.

The combination of flavors was incredible. Rich, sweet, and salty all rolled in one.

I brought the cupcakes to my husband's performance to congratulate him and his castmates on a wonderful show (for a local Library Arts series). I tried to snap a picture of the cupcake on stage, but the lighting was all wrong. So, this one with the mic pack will have to do.

How did you celebrate Chocolate Cupcake Day 2009?