Pretzels and Cheese Sauce
These freshly baked pretzels have been shared with us by Sophia Handschuh from Thermomix Baking Blogger. Serve them at your party alongside the cheese sauce for dipping. You will find them to be great for filling up your guests, but also good the next day for lunch as well. Just make sure when storing them that you keep them in a dry place and the next day slightly toast them. You can slice them lengthways, spread some butter on it and top it with cheese to take into work for lunch.
Recipe Tester Feedback: "The pretzels were really delicious. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the taste of the cheese, but it tastes really good and there is a lot of it. I really enjoyed them, as did my husband. I need to make more because there are only two left!" - Sherrie
No: Egg / Nuts
Contains: Gluten / Dairy
Preparation Time 15 minutes + 1 hour rising time + 30 minutes resting time
Cooking Time 15-20 minutes
Serves 8
Can be frozen
Ingredients
- Pretzels:
- milk - 400g, full cream
- brown sugar - 20g
- yeast - 2 tsp, dry active
- plain flour - 600g, plus extra for dusting
- salt - 10g
- Lye:
- water - 1L
- bicarb soda - 3 Tbsp
- To finish:
- sea salt - 3 Tbsp, coarse
- Cheese dip:
- spring onions - 50g, peeled
- Camembert cheese - 250g, broken up in pieces
- crème fraîche - 150g
- caraway seeds - 1/2 tsp
- salt - 1/4 tsp
- paprika - 1/2 tsp
- pepper - 2 pinches
- fresh chives - 5g, chopped
Method
Pretzels:
- Add milk (400g), sugar (20g) and yeast (2 tsp) to the bowl. Program 2 minutes / 37C / Speed 2.
- Add plain flour (600g) and salt (10g) (in this order!) to the bowl. Program 2:30 minutes / Closed Lid / Kneading Function.
- Cover the dough with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 hour until doubled in size.
- Once risen, take the dough out of the bowl and place it onto a floured surface. The trick is to tip the bowl upside down and remove the bottom. Then press the knife down. The dough should come out clean. Be careful when picking up the knife.
- Cut the dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece out to be a long (40cm) rope with a slightly thicker middle and thinner ends. Bring the two ends together in the middle, overlap them, twist, and bring back to go over the main body, almost like tying a knot.
- Place on a floured baking tray lined with baking paper. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 200C.
- Bring the water (1L) to a boil in a medium saucepan and add the bicarb soda (3 Tbsp). When it is boiling, turn it down to low heat.
- Carefully place 2 pretzels at a time in the water and leave them in there for 30-50 seconds, turning them halfway through. Remove with a slotted spoon.
- Place back on the tray and sprinkle with salt (3 Tbsp). Slightly slice the bottom of the pretzels and place them in the oven to bake for 12-18 minutes, until golden brown.
Cheese dip:
- Meanwhile, place the spring onions (50g) in the bowl. Blitz Speed 5 / 3 seconds. Scrape down sides.
- Add the cheese (250g), crème fraîche (150g), caraway seeds (1/2 tsp), salt (1/4 tsp), paprika (1/2 tsp) and pepper (2 pinches) to the bowl. Mix Speed 4 / 20 seconds. Set aside.
- Sprinkle with the chives (5g) and enjoy with the warm pretzels!
