Bake While the Sun Shines

I'm sitting here at my kitchen table typing happily, pausing often to look out my lovely big bay window into the front yard. The sun is shining, my geraniums are blooming brightly, robins are hopping about after worms, and I'm listening to some of my favorite music (thank you,Project Playlist). Even better, there's currently a zero percent chance of rain (quite a switch -- it's been so rainy here that you'd think we were living in Seattle instead of the St. Louis-area). Since it's bright and sunny out, with very low humidity and lower temperatures overall, I figured this was a good day to get the baking bug out of my system. For quite a while, I've been meaning to bake another loaf of multigrain bread (recipe in my post, "Making Bread, Breaking Bread"). And then, the other day my friend Emily posted in her blog ("The View From the Thirty-Second Floor") about baking homemade chocolate pretzels....

Clearly I was overdue for an afternoon of me-time in the kitchen with a couple new recipes and my laptop playing all my favorite tunes (currently playing: Billy Joel's Uptown Girl -- classic!). I started the afternoon by getting out all the ingredients for the chocolate pretzels. As I arranged ingredients around my stand mixer, I noticed a portion of the recipe I had failed to pay any attention to...the butter and egg needed to come to room temperature! (I know that's a "well, duh" moment, but I totally forgot about it, okay?) Anyway, I quickly rearranged my baking schedule and started with the multigrain whole wheat bread. That way, the dough could rest while I prepared the chocolate pretzel dough.

The multigrain bread has fast become a favorite of mine, as its exterior is crusty and crumbly and it's interior is hearty, but soft and slightly chewy. As a bread, it's so versatile too! I love using it to make toast for breakfast, but it's also incredible with sliced turkey or ham as a sandwich for lunch, or even with a dab of peanut butter for a quick snack. If summer temperatures didn't prevent me, I would probably bake a loaf every week. Unfortunately, running my oven for almost an hour in a July heat wave is a recipe for heat stroke!

I'm also trying a new recipe today: chocolate pretzels. I got the recipe for these from Emily's blog as well (what can I say, she has great ideas). Her recipe, however, originated with The Smitten Kitchen, a blog that I have begun to follow as well. Smitten makes so many appealing treats, including homemade marshmallows and homemade graham crackers (used in what I can only assume were the ultimate s'mores). I have to say, you have to admire, and slightly fear, a pregnant woman who voluntarily makes s'mores from scratch in order to enjoy really good s'mores. Me, I always assumed that ANY s'more was a good s'more! But I obviously have much to learn!

I'll definitely be trying to make homemade marshmallows, etc. once. We'll see how traumatic they actually are. According to Smitten Kitchen, there's an excellent chance for me to end up wearing much of the marshmallow concoction. And while I will stipulate to the inherently messy nature of s'mores, I don't think I'd enjoy wearing them (or their individual components).

I'm sure I'll try many of the Smitten Kitchen recipes in the coming months, especially ones that don't require baking. I'm also planning to make lots of ice creams this summer (surely you remember how excited I was about my ice cream maker?!) =]


For now, my oven is preheated, and it's time to bake the bread. Another hour till the pretzel dough is ready......as Ahhr-nold would say, "I'll be back." =]

[Time Elapsed: 5 hours]


Okay, so after a really long break (and a trip to Border's for coffee and browsing), I came home and started rolling out my chocolate pretzels. After the first one broke for about the fifth time, I was ready to throw a chunk of the dough. Long story short, I made half a batch and will worry about the rest of the dough tomorrow. Or not.

For those of you who are feeling adventurous, here's the recipe:

Chocolate Pretzels

1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour (I used King Arthur White/Wheat Flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk (for brushing)
Rock sugar (for sprinkling)

Place butter into mixing bowl. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add sugars and beat for 2 minutes until butter and sugar is well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in melted chocolate and cocoa powder. Add flour, salt and baking powder. Do not over mix. Dough will pull away from sides and form a ball in the bottom of the bowl.

Remove dough from bowl. Form into a long rectangle. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. Remove dough from fridge. Cut into 20 equal chunk portions. Roll each section into a long snake, about 10 inches long. Form dough into a circle and then twist twice at the bottom. Fold ends over to form a pretzel shape. Place on a baking sheet. Brush with egg yolk and then sprinkle with rock sugar.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Pretzels will just start to harden. Transfer to a cooling rack. Do not store until completely cool.