I do realize that all I blog about these days is about my 'culinary' adventures. I don't mean it to go that way, but the truth is, writing about the things I cook require the least words and time! I mean, I just copy the recipe and paste it here, put up a picture or two and wallah, it's one entry done!

I have so much to write about the kids, I will make sure I do, but for now let's just take about pretzels first, shall we?

Afiq lovessssss Auntie Anne's pretzels. I do too, but not as much as Afiq does. So one day, during my shopping trip at Yummie, I came across a bottle of caramel sauce, and I thought, hey, I can try making pretzels and eat them with the caramel sauce. I don't know why I thought making pretzels is easier than making the caramel sauce, but my brain is complicated that way.

So I bought that bottle of caramel sauce and finally attempted at making pretzels yesterday.

For me, beside searching for the recipe with the most positive reviews, watching a few videos on how to twist the pretzels is important too prior to making the pretzels. It will help a lot when you're making the pretzels, so I would recommend that you do that too.

-------------------------------
I used the recipe from CDK KITCHEN
Aunt Annie's Soft Pretzels
serves/makes: 12

ingredients:
For the pretzels
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour

For the soda bath:
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda

For toppings:
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

directions:

Note: as usual, I used my bread maker, so I just put all the ingredients for the dough into the breadmaker for it to do its magic.

I noticed that the dough was a little sticky, so while the bread maker was kneading I added a few spoonfuls more of flour.

The 'manual way':

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 Tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. Or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!

* The longer and thinner you can make the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be. (Of course I don't have the counter space!)

*Sweet butter, not regular butter, is one of her secrets!

---------------------------------

The pretzels turned out really good. As suggested in the recipe, the longer and thinner you can make the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be. I find it quite tough to make it really thin, as it will be more fragile especially when dipping them into the soda bath, but I think it's just a matter of skills (or lack of in my case, hehe).

The most interesting part of my pretzels story is however this: remember that bottle of caramel sauce I bought? I open it as soon as my pretzels were ready... And oh my god, it tastes horrible! Extremely terrible! Macam ubat gegat! Not that I've tasted ubat gegat before, but it sure smelled the same.

I ended up making my own caramel sauce (after quickly googling it). The best thing is, it only took me 5 minutes to make it! Ironic, isn't it?

Here's the recipe for the caramel sauce adapted from here

caramel sauce dipping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature - I didn't have heavy cream, so I used whipping cream instead.
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp butter

- it was a little thick (maybe it was because I was using whipping cream instead of heavy cream, so I added a few spoons of water)

directions:
put sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. heat until it becomes dark amber color.
add in salt, pour in heavy cream (it will bubble like mad), stir until smooth and even color. remove from heat. let cool for 5 minutes.
add in butter, stir evenly.