Knot Inspired

Hello friends and enemies. Long time no post. Why is that, you might be wondering? Well, other than being busy moving back to Athens, planning Spring courses last minute, and my birthday, I can sum up my lack of writing in two words:

NO INSPIRATION.

*dramatic sigh*

It's not that I haven't been in the kitchen. I spent Spring Break at my parents' house (the kitchen of which I've spent many posts lauding) while all my usual kitchen companions were off galavanting for the week. This left me plenty of room and plenty of time to be whipping up some vegan delights.

And I did. I experimented (with mixed results) veganifying my Mom's semi-famous Scotch Shortbread. Inspired by Liddabit's Beer&Pretzel Caramels, I tried my hand at making both pretzels and caramel. I cooked a few off-the-cuff, whatever-was-in-the-fridge, one-pot casseroles that all turned out delicious.

But that's just it. There's no real story behind anything that came out of my kitchen in the past week. I wanted to make something. I gathered the supplies and tools to do so. I made the something. It turned out edible. I cleaned the kitchen. The end. Certainly not the stuff great blog posts are made of, that's for sure.

So to tide you all over until my inspiration returns from Spring Break, here's a pictorial of my pretzel-making as well as a link to the Alton Brown recipe for pretzels that I used. My only change to the recipe was omitting the egg wash before baking. I simply brushed with water and used regular coarse sea salt (instead of pretzel salt). Procedural changes include kneading the last couple cups of flour in by hand (since I couldn't find my mom's mixer's dough hook attachment) and using a large pot instead of a roasting pan to boil the pretzels. I wasn't making long sticks so I didn't need that large a pan.

Jessie the Dog has a nstily adorable habit of wanting to be right-up-ons wherever you happen to be in the kitchen. This requires some creative space managment while rolling out your pretzels.

This is the pretzel dough. It rose just like it was supposed to and was delightfully sticky. I was pleased.

Boiling the pretzels. I made little pretzel nubbins (possibly to be coated in caramel) so I could boil many at a time. Then I decided to get fancy and make some pretzels that looked like pretzels.

These I could only boil two or three at a time. Don't worry if they un-knot in the water. just smoosh them back together on the tray.

The deliciously golden-brown finished product. I probably could have cooked these even longer, but I didn't mind the slightly chewy center. Whatever strikes your pretzel fancy.