Every time I think of a pretzel I think about those warm, doughy pretzels from Mr. Pretzel, covered in cinnamon sugar - these were always the highlight of any Westfield shopping trip. I made cookie dough stuffed pretzels a few months ago (these were sooo good) and I keep seeing baklava-style babka on my feed so I thought I'd combine the two, and boy am I glad I did! I'll just have to do some online shopping to recreate the Westfield experience.
These pretzels are soft, chewy and crunchy all at once. Like any bread they're best eaten while still warm from the oven, but if not they can be kept in an airtight container for a few days although they will need warming in the microwave for 10-20s to soften them again.
Make me vegan: use the dough that is in the 'Vegan Chocolate Swirl Buns' (in short: swap the butter for vegan butter and replace the eggs with an extra 60ml plant milk. You may also need more flour - 10-20g or so) and use maple syrup instead of honey.
Recipe
Prep time: 3 hours
Cook time: 15 minutes
Makes: 8 large pretzels
Ingredients:
For the dough:
180ml Milk
1 sachet Yeast (7g)
50g Granulated Sugar
1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
55g Butter
390g Strong White Bread Flour
3/4 tsp Salt
For the filling:
300g Nuts (of choice)*
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
For the syrup:
90g Granulated Sugar
2tsp Lemon Juice
90ml Water
60ml Honey
*I used 100g walnuts, 180g pistachios and 20g ground almonds. Walnuts and pistachios are my favourites in baklava but feel free to swap whichever nut you prefer.
Method:
Place the butter and milk in a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Leave to rest for a few minutes.
Add the sugar, egg yolk and egg and mix. Then sift in the flour and salt and combine either with a stand mixer or a spoon. Knead in the mixer for 5-6 minutes followed by 2 minutes by hand, or 8 minutes total by hand.
Place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and let prove in a warm place for 1hr 30mins or until doubled in size.
While the dough is rising, make the glaze. Place all of the ingredients for the glaze into a saucepan and heat over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce the heat slightly and let the syrup boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Make the filling by putting the nuts into a food processor and pulsing until finely chopped - you want some slightly larger pieces to give a crunch while other pieces will be almost ground. Scoop 1/4 of the nuts into a bowl and save for later.
Add the cinnamon into the remaining nut mixture and pour in approx. 1/4 of the syrup. Combine everything with a spoon - the nut mixture should come together into a slight paste but without being too sticky or liquidy.
When the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 180°C. Tip the dough onto a well-floured surface and divide it equally into 8 balls. Roll out one piece into a rectangle - roughly 27x7cm - making sure there is enough flour to prevent sticking. Scoop 1/8 of the nut filling and add it evenly along one of the long edges of the rectangle (it will be quite a thin line). Starting with this side, roll the dough up into a log and press the edges together - using some water will help the edges to stick. Gently roll out with your palms if it isn't quite a log shape.
Make the pretzel shape by first folding the log (dough) into a heart. Then take the two ends together and twist over each other once (each end will end up back onto the same side as it started). Press the ends into the pretzel (about 1/3 up the sides from the bottom of the pretzel), using water to help it stick. Repeat steps 7+8 with the remainder of the dough.
Fill a bowl with warm water and add 2tsp bicarbonate of soda. Submerge the pretzels two at a time for 30s before placing onto baking parchment (leaving enough space in between the pretzels as they expand a bit). Brush the tops with melted butter or an egg wash.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the pretzels to cool for ~10 minutes. When they aren't too hot to touch, brush one half of each pretzel with the syrup (using an egg brush) - be liberal! Dip this half into the bowl of chopped nuts, coating the syrup in the nuts. Serve while still warm!