I've discovered these pretzels when I was about 8 years old, and a friend from my class invited me to her house to play. Her mother made these salty pretzels and when I first tasted them I was in love. Even if you do them with salty cheese, they still have a balanced taste, and don't seem too salty.
All my friends ask me now to bake them every time there is a party, or when we decide to get out of town for a couple of days.
I am sure that you will find them as perfect as I do :)
Ingredients:
- 500 grams all purpose flour
- 250 grams margarine
- 175 grams hard feta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 6 tablespoons of milk / or 3 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 or 2 yolks for coating + 2 or 3 tablespoons of milk
The very first thing that you should always do when baking, is to turn your oven on to heat up while you prepare the batter.
Grate the cheese using the big teeth of the grater and mix it together with the margarine. Add the eggs, milk or sour cream (which ever you choose to use), the vinegar and flour. Mix everything really well and keep it in the refrigerator for half an hour to cool down.
Roll the dough on a floured surface. Make it 0.5 cm thick. If it is too thin, the pretzels will burn in the oven instead of being moist. You can even make them a little thicker if you like them more this way.
Use a pretzel form and get as many pretzels you can out of a sheet. Gather the remains from every sheet and use them to make new sheets. When you are on your last sheet, you can cut them in long strips instead of still using the form. This way you won't have any other leftovers.
Take a big plate, sprinkle flour on it and deposit the pretzels until you end up making all of them. Use a thin foil to separate the rows of pretzels, and always sprinkle the foil with flour so that they won't stick. Place them in the freezer for at least half an hour. This will help them stay moist after you bake them.
Take a big tray and put a baking paper on. Put the pretzels on the baking paper, leaving small spaces between them. Mix the yolks with 2 or 3 tablespoons of cold milk and coat the pretzels.
Bake them for about 20 minutes at 180ºC, or until they get lightly brown on the back (the part that sits on the tray).
Advices:
- if you don't have time to leave the batter in the refrigerator before rolling it, it's not such a big problem, because you will freeze the pretzels before baking them. So you can cut out this operation.
- you can use any other cheese you like, as long as it is a hard salty cheese
- I always use sour cream instead of milk, and this makes them tender and better than milk does
- make sure that to use big eggs, 60 grams or more
There you have it. A perfect snack for movie nights, a party, or if you just want something to chew on. Something healthier than what you find at the store.
I hope that you will enjoy it. Kisses :* :)
Bon Appétit!
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