What's twisty, tasty, and easy to eat on the run? Soft pretzels- without the animal products!! These things take only about an hour to make (includes prep time) and you can't mess them up. Seriously, they go with anything.
I make about five and have them for breakfast with a side of strawberry soy milk to fill up before work throughout the week. I adapted them from Chef Tess's recipe. Here's what you need:
| Dough Ingredients
| Basting Ingredients (optional)
|
 First , add the yeast to warmed 1 1/4 cups water and sugar in a medium bowl. Briefly stir the mix and set aside in a warm area (not in the oven. You don't want to kill the yeast, do you?). In about 10 minutes the mix should look foamy, a bit like thick soup was shaken up and poured into your bowl- EEW! Cup for cup, add the flour. You can see from the picture below that I added oats and shredded zucchini instead of a third cup of flour. They're your pretzels, have fun with it!  This is where things get kind of messy! Squish the flour around, then flip it out onto a flat surface to knead until your frustrations have subsided, about 2-3 minutes. Make a short log and cut into tennis ball size sections. Replace them in the bowl and set them in a warm place to rise a bit. The yeast in the dough will eat the sugar and produce carbon dioxide, making tiny fluffy pockets of air in about 5 minutes. |  Roll the chunks of dough into snakes about twice as big as your thumb. Twist and push the pieces down like the picture to make a pretzel shape. Flop them onto a foiled baking sheet. To make the top of the pretzels crunchier and golden, mix the basting ingredients and paint a layer onto them. I added artificial butter flavor in it this time but you could also sprinkle cinnamon and sugar, salt, garlic, or even vegan cheese (such as Daiya or Tofutti) on.  Slide the cookie sheet onto the oven rack for 10 minutes, spin it around half way, and bake for 10 more minutes. Transfer them onto a cooling rack or the bottoms will continue to cook! Once cooled they can be refrigerated for two weeks in a plastic bag. Reheat them in a napkin for 1 minute. |
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