My pal Knit-Whit came over yesterday and we spent a lovely, sunny afternoon (and evening) cooking, eating and chatting.

A few weeks ago, when the March issue of Bon Appetit arrived in our mailboxes, she immediately spied the recipe for pretzel knots. I hadn't gotten around to looking at my issue yet, but when she mentioned it to me, I decided we HAD to get together and make them.

It turns out Knit-Whit had never made bread of any kind before (!) so this was the perfect way to get her acquainted with the ins and outs of making and working with yeast dough.
These were a fairly simple and straightforward recipe, similar to bagels in that you scald the formed knots in a bath of water, beer, sugar and baking soda before baking them off.

We had been chatting each others' ears off all afternoon, taking a quick break in between for a lunchtime bowl of homemade French onion soup, but as soon as we pulled these out of the oven and sat down to try them, all speaking ceased :)



She had proclaimed her craving for cheese for dipping, so we threw together a traditional cheese fondue that was a perfect pairing and made for a delicious, stick-to-your-ribs snack.
The pretzels turned out to be spot-on for texture and flavor and chew, and the smell and fresh baked loveliness of them was irresistable. They were everything that you hope for in a street vendor pretzel but never really find.

Fortuantely the guys were hanging around to help us devour this plate or things might have gotten a little out of hand.

We baked off two full batches and half-baked another two for freezer stash, to pull out, bake and enjoy hot and fresh as the craving arises.

As far as the recipe goes, we both decided that they should have been brushed with melted butter instead of oil like the recipe calls for, and that they'd be the perfect platform for playing around with sweet and savory seasonings other than salt. I'm adding them into rotation to serve as dinner rolls for sure!

Labels: cooking food baking pretzel knots