It's that time of the month again! I'm participating in the Secret Recipe Club. Basically, you sign up and you are assigned a blog. You get to pick a recipe from their blog to try and change at your will. Then you make your post about it on the assigned day. All posts for that day are added to a blog hop, so it's easy to see what everyone else made too. It's so fun to see what people pick from your own website too!
This month, I was assigned to Heather's blog: It's Yummy to My Tummy. There were several recipes I found that I wanted to try....and I'm still going to try the granola bars and the fruit and cheese danish. I ended up choosing two for this post: pretzel rolls and beer bread. I've been wanting to try my own buns for a while now, so the pretzel rolls worked out perfectly. I keep hearing about the Tastefully Simple beer bread, but I've never had it, so when I saw that recipe I had to try that too. Both came out tasting great.
I really love the pretzel rolls. I've actually made them three times now (in a month!). We've eaten them with grilled burgers, chicken and lunchmeat. Chicken salad sandwiches would also taste great, but that is one thing I love and J won't eat! I think everything tastes better with a special bread, and this one wont disappoint. It tastes just like the soft pretzels at a ballpark...but I'm sure it's much healthier since you know all the ingredients in it! It also freezes well too. I froze them after baking them all the way, but you could also freeze them after a couple minutes in the oven (before they brown) then brown them after thawing.
The beer bread is very good too. I recommend it as a sandwich bread or as a dipper bit. Alone, this bread is a good basic bread, but the beer flavor compliments and enhances other toppings or ingredients really well. We made grilled chicken with BBQ sauce sandwiches out of this bread. We used a strong dark beer from Trader Joe's (similar to Guinness), but you could use any beer you like the flavor of. Heather said once she made it with cream soda and sprinkled on cinnamon and sugar. I keep meaning to try that! Yum.
Of course, I changed both recipes just a bit. I substituted white whole wheat flour, which is our family preference. This also means adding in some vital wheat gluten to make sure the yeast works properly.
Pretzel Rolls1-1/3 cups warm water
2 Tbl warm milk
2-1/2 tsp yeast
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbl melted butter
3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbl + 2 tsp vital wheat gluten
kosher salt
2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup baking soda
- Mix 1/3 cup warm water (about 105*) with yeast and some of the brown sugar. Let stand until foamy.
- Add the remaining cup of warm water with milk, the rest of the brown sugar, and melted butter and swirl to dissolve. Add flour and mix at medium-low speed. Knead for about 2 minutes. Roll into a 2 foot long log and cut into 12 even pieces. Cover dough with plastic and damp cloth and sit for 10-20 minutes.
- Pat dough into rolls or knots (the rolls rose better for me) and arrange on a lightly floured surface about an inch apart. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let pretzels rest for another 30-45 minutes. They should rise quite a bit during this time.
- Preheat oven to 425*. Lightly oil baking sheets.
- In a large stockpot (seriously-Large! When you add the baking soda it's like a volcanic reaction!) Bring the cold water to a rolling boil and add baking soda.
- Drop two rolls into the boiling water and boil no longer than 30 seconds, turning once. carefully remove and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat.
- Bake rolls for about 8-10 minutes or until browned all over.
- Cool about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Beer Bread
12 oz beer
2-1/2 cups + 2Tbl whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
4 Tbl melted butter
4-1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 350*. Grease loaf pan.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in beer.
- Pour batter into pan and brush on melted butter.
- Bake 50-60 minutes until browned.
- Cool slightly and remove from pan.
To see other great recipes from the Secret Recipe Club members, follow the links below!
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