Snacks!

Homemade Pretzels

I've been super lazy the past couple days with dinner and have been focusing on snacks, but it turned out to be a good thing because I have discovered a treat my husband and I both enjoy, the kiddies are asleep so we will have to see what they say. Tonight I made french bread pizza for the kids with my homemade pizza sauce which is great because the left over sauce I freeze for the next time, and who doesn't love french bread pizza, easy, fun, and everyone can create their own topping. The night before we did breaded pork chops for my hubby, then the day before that Eeggees! Anyways back to the pretzels... The ingredients are simple:

1 1/2 C warm water

2 TBS light brown sugar

1 Package Active Dry Yeast

3 ounces unsalted butter, melted

2 1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 1/2 to 5 C all-purpose flour

vegetable oil

3 quarts water

3/4 C baking soda

1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp cold water

coarse sea salt

Although the ingredients are simple the process is time consuming, I'm not gonna lie, but well worth it.

1) Mix sugar, yeast, melted butter, and warm water in a blender until smooth.

2) Let mixture sit for about 5 minutes to let the yeast become active.

3) Slowly add in variation flour and salt blending slowly then beat at medium speed until the batter pulls away from the bowl. If the mixture seems watery then add more flour by the TBS.

4) Knead dough into a ball.

5) Coat a bowl with vegetable oil and roll dough ball to coat in oil, cover bowl with a clean towel and let rise to twice its size, at least 1 hour.

6) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

7) Boil water in large pan then add baking soda.

8) Divide dough into eight pieces and roll into whatever shape you like, I did nibblets and pretzel shapes.

9) Boil in water mixture for 30 seconds in batches and remove with a slotted spoon onto a sprayed baking sheet. Make sure pretzels aren't toughing.

10) Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt.

11) Bake in oven for 15-18 minutes.

12) Serve with sauce or good plain. (later I will add a cheese sauce recipe)

Pizza Sauce

After I was done writing this post my husband read it and of course came up with such an obvious idea for a dipping sauce for the pretzels... duh my pizza sauce. It is the easiest sauce ever and if I am feeling creative I will add some more ingredients like cinnamon, bay leaves, or get crazy and add saute`d mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers... you get the idea. Here are the ingredients I used last night:

1 TBS Olive Oil

Half Onion Diced

1 Large Garlic Clove Sliced

1 can Diced Tomatoes

1 can Tomato Sauce

1 tsp butter

1 tsp Dry Basil, or couple leaves of Fresh Basil

1) Saute` onion in olive oil, then add garlic and saute`.

2) Pour in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and butter and bring to a boil.

3) Simmer covered for 20 minutes.

4) Let cool then puree in blender.

When chopping up garlic and onion don't worry too much about size because it will all get chopped in the blender. Also freeze the left over sauce and use when you have pizza again or need a good dipping sauce.