Double Soda Pretzels #BreadBakers

Soda bread dough, dipped in baked-baking-soda water, turns into the most delightful (and easy!) treats I’m naming double soda pretzels. Brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with salt before baking, they are a warm, wonderful snack.

This month my Bread Baker friends are all making pretzels to share with you and it's my turn to host. We have an amazing line up of recipes, some quite traditional, some with twists on the classic method. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom and check out the list.

Every challenge like this one always requires some research on my part. I know that the original German pretzels call for a dip in a water bath with lye. But when one cannot source lye (or is scared to work with it) there are alternatives. The first time I made pretzels for a blog post in this space, I chose to stuff the pretzels with cheese. Definitely not traditional but that did give me the chewiness I was looking for.

This time my research led me down a different path to getting the color and chew without lye or cheese. The great and knowledgeable food scientist expert Harold McGee wrote an New York Times article back in 2010 recommending that pretzel bakers raise the alkalinity of baking soda by baking it before dissolving it in the water bath. It’s not the same strength as lye would be, but it gets closer.

And because it is damn cold where I am right now, I also decided to make a soda bread dough rather than trying to get a yeast dough to rise. But can a quick dough be as good as a yeast dough for pretzels?

The verdict: Yes, it can! This recipe/method turns out chewy pretzels with great flavor. I don’t think I’ll ever make them with a yeast dough again!

Double Soda Pretzels

I brought a couple of these double soda pretzels over to my neighbors and they earned two thumbs up. If you are not a fan of working with yeast, do give my soda bread version a try.

Ingredients
For the water bath:
2/3 cup or 185g baking soda
5 cups or ml water

For the pretzel dough:
1 cup or 240ml milk
2 teaspoons white vinegar
3 1/4 cups or 406g all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup or 60ml honey

For baking:
1/4 cup or 57g butter, melted
1-2 tablespoons flakey sea salt, for topping

Method
Preheat your oven to 250°F or 121°C and line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Sprinkle the baking powder for the water bath on to the foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and tip into a large non-aluminum stock pot with 5 cups or 1.2L water.

Bring it to the boil and then remove from the heat and put a lid on the pot.

Pour the 1 cup or 240ml milk into a 2-cup measuring vessel and add the vinegar to it. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and grease two (preferably non-stick) baking pans or use silicone liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda and salt. Add the honey to the milk mixture and whisk till it is dissolved in the milk.

Add the milk and honey to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until it has formed a dough.

Turn it out on a lightly floured surface. Knead it a few turns and form it in a smooth ball.

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. (If you are a scale user, know that mine weighed about 95g each.)

Use a little sprinkled flour and roll them like sausages until they are about 12 to 14 inches or cm long.

Form into pretzel shapes.

Overlap

Overlap again

Flip the twist up and pinch the ends down so they stick

Use a spatula to transfer them one or two at a time to the warm soda water bath for 30 seconds.

Remove them from the bath and transfer to a baking pan. Continue until all the pretzels have had 30 seconds in the soda water bath.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle on some flakey sea salt.

Do not use parchment paper under your pretzels. Even if it is buttered, your pretzels will stick. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the double soda pretzels are lovely and brown. When they come out of the oven, you can brush them with more butter, if desired.

Enjoy!

Check out all of the lovely pretzels we are sharing today! What a fabulous start to the new year.

• Authentic German Pretzels from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Ballpark Pretzels from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Beer Pretzels from Passion Kneaded
• Buttery Pretzels from Ambrosia
• Cheddar Garlic Soft Pretzels from Palatable Pastime
• Cheese Jalapeño Stuffed Pretzel Rolls from Herbivore Cucina
• Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites from Cook's Hideout
• Cinnamon Sugar Soft Pretzels from Hostess At Heart
• Double Soda Pretzels from Food Lust People Love
• German Pretzel Rolls from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Honey Mustard Snack Pretzels from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Pretzel Dogs from Sneha's Recipe
• Pretzel Sticks from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Saffron Pretzel Rolls from The Schizo Chef
• Soft Whole Wheat Pretzels from What Smells So Good?
• Sourdough Soft Pretzels from Baking Sense
• Whole Wheat Pretzel Bites from I camp in my kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Hot Smoked Salmon Choux Bites #BakingBloggers

Airy and light, choux buns can be stuffed with either sweet or savory fillings. My hot smoked salmon choux bites have a rich, flavorful filling that perfectly complements the fluffy buns. Serve these at your next gathering and watch them disappear.

Choux pastry often shows up in patisseries or bakeries in fancy shapes like eclairs or choux swans filled with sweetened custards or whipped cream so most folks imagine it must be hard to make. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, although I used to beat the requisite eggs into the dough by hand, I have discovered that it can be done in my stand mixer. Now choux is even faster and easier than ever to make.

One of the things I like best about choux pastry is that it lends itself equally well to sweet desserts, like my lemon raspberry croquembouche or savory appetizers, like these hot smoked salmon choux bites. And, another bonus, it is made with ingredients most people almost invariably have on hand. Water, flour, butter and eggs. And just a little of those four go a long way!

This month my fellow Baking Bloggers are sharing our favorite choux pastry recipes. If you’ve been nervous about giving it a try, perhaps we can convince you that it really is easy.

Hot Smoked Salmon Choux Bites

These tasty hot smoked salmon choux bites are a great make-ahead appetizer. Bake your choux buns and make your filling, just fill and serve at party time. Makes about 24-30.

Ingredients
For the choux pastry:
1/4 cup or 50g butter
1/2 cup or 120ml water
1/2 cup or 65g plain flour
1 pinch salt
2 eggs, at room temperature

For the hot smoked salmon filling:
7 ounces or 200g smoked salmon (Mine was hot smoked so it looks more "cooked" than cold smoked salmon. But you can use either.)
5 oz or about 145g cream cheese, at room temperature
3 1/2 oz or 100g Boursin garlic and fine herb soft cheese or an equivalent
2-3 green onion tops, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup or 80ml heavy cream

Optional for decorating: Maille mustard with fine herbs or tarragon.
I used the mustard with tarragon, which was quite delicious because salmon and mustard do go nicely together, especially with a hot smoked salmon filling as rich as this one. But I must confess that I bought it initially just because of the color. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to find it where you live.

Method
Preheat your oven to 445°F or 230°C and prepare your baking sheet by lining it with baking parchment stuck down with a little non-stick spray.

Tip: Make your life easier by using a bottle top or some other round object as a template to draw circles on the bottom of your parchment paper. Turn the parchment over and use the pencil circles as a guide for piping your choux pastry. You want 1 inch or 2.5cm circles about an equal measure apart on the parchment. I've included the bottle cap I used in the photos so you can see how small the choux buns started out and how much they puffed up when baked. (I did not bake the cap!)

To make your choux pastry buns, sift together your flour and a pinch of salt and put it right next to the stove in readiness.

In a medium pot, combine the butter and water and bring to the boil. Pour the flour/salt mixture into the boiling water/butter all at once.

Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball and pulls right away from the sides. This takes just a minute or two. Now take the pot off of the stove and tip the mixture into your stand mixer.

(This can also be done the traditional way, by hand with a wooden spoon. Check out my croquembouche recipe to see how that's done.) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. It looks like the egg won’t mix in and the dough starts to fall apart but keep mixing and after a little beating, the dough comes together again and it’s time to add the second egg.

After that egg has been incorporated into the dough, put the dough by spoonfuls into a piping bag with a large tip.

Pipe the soft dough on the parchment paper in 1 inch or 2.5cm circles about an equal measure apart from each other, using your circles as a guide, if you followed the tip above. Poke down any pointy tops with a damp finger.

Bake the choux in your preheated oven for 10 minutes then turn the temperature down to 350°F or 180°C and bake for a further 25-30 minutes or until golden.

Remove from the oven and poke a hole in one side of each choux bun with a toothpick. This allows the steam to escape and helps the choux bun keep its shape as it cools. Cool completely on a wire rack.

While the choux buns are baking, you can make your hot smoked salmon filling. Use a fork to flake the fish, discarding any bones that might have been missed when it was filleted.

In a bowl, mix together your filling ingredients up to the cream. Add and mix in cream a couple of tablespoons at a time, until you get a nice consistency to your filling, not too soft but definitely spoon-able. You may not use all of the cream. Or if your salmon was on the dry side, you might want a little more.

If you aren’t serving the hot smoked salmon choux bites immediately, store the filling covered with cling film in the refrigerator and, once the choux buns are completely cooled, store them in an airtight container.

When you are ready to serve, cut the choux buns in half and fill with a good spoon of the chilled hot smoked salmon filling.

Put the top of the choux bun back on. Decorate by piping on some herby mustard, if desired.

You may have noticed that I made so many more than are in the photographs. That’s because I took some to a dinner party and filled them there. The rest? I ate them. So good!

Enjoy!

Many thanks to one of our fearless leaders and this month’s host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. Check out all the choux pastry recipes!

• Boston Cream Puffs by Cookaholic Wife
• Burnt Caramel Croquembouche by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Cannoli Cream Puffs by The RedHead Baker
• Cream Puffs with Ice Cream and Chocolate by Sneha’s Recipe
• Double Chocolate Cream Puffs by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Gougères - French Cheese Puffs by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Ham Salad Pate a Choux by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Hot Smoked Salmon Choux Bites by Food Lust People Love
• Strawberry Cream Puffs by Palatable Pastime

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Hearty Lentil Tomato Sauce (for pasta)

If you are looking for a flavorful, rich vegetarian alternative to traditional Bolognese sauce made with ground beef, here you go! My hearty lentil tomato sauce is absolutely delicious, healthy and filling. Perfect for a cold winter’s night when comfort food is required.

Years ago both of our girls were vegetarian, and even now, the younger one eats mostly vegetarian when she’s not at home. During that time, I started exploring vegetarian recipes and figuring out how to recreate some of our family favorites without meat. Taste was of the utmost importance but I also wanted to add protein, to make up for the lack of meat.

Lentils are one of the best pulses or legumes for this. They don’t require soaking. They cook up quickly and are great at taking on whatever flavors are added to them. Their only downside, especially if you use the green Puy lentils, is the color. If you can overlook that, lentils are a vegetarian’s best friend.

Tip: This hearty lentil tomato sauce freezes beautifully so it’s worth doubling the recipe and freezing half in a sealed freezer bag for another family meal.

Hearty Lentil Tomato Sauce

Whether you just do “meatless Monday” or eat vegetarian all the time, you will want to add hearty lentil tomato sauce to your family meal plan. This will easily feed four hungry people when served on top of pasta.

Ingredients
1 cup or 200g dried Puy lentils
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 ripe large tomatoes (about 1 lb or 450g)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Sea salt and black pepper - to taste
handful basil and parsley chopped plus extra to garnish
1 tomato, deseeded and chopped
2 handfuls sliced black olives, optional - we love 'em but I know some people don't.    Use more, less or none, according to your taste

To serve: your favorite pasta, cooked to package instructions

Method
Rinse the lentils, picking through them to make sure there aren’t any little rocks, and set aside to drain.

Sauté the chopped onions and garlic in the olive oil till softened. Add in the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, bay leaf and baking soda. Stir well.

Cook over a medium heat for just a few minutes, then add in the rinsed lentils, plus 2 cups or 480ml water along with the smoked paprika and crushed red pepper flakes.

Bring the pot to a gentle boil then turn the fire down to simmer. Cook, covered for about 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more water, if necessary.

When the lentils are cooked, stir in the chopped basil and parsley and a handful of the sliced black olives, if using. Also, add half of the extra chopped tomato. I took the photo before the tomato half went in, but don't forget to add it. A little uncooked tomato brightens up the flavor.

Garnish with the other half of the tomato, more herbs and more black olive slices, if desired. Serve over your favorite cooked pasta.

Enjoy!

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