Northern (de)Lights (AM)

On Saturday night, J threw a Nordic themed dinner party. We privately referred to it as Northern (de)Lights, and looked forward to the time that someone else (Legsley) would make that pun. Unfortunately it never happened, but I'm just going to keep calling it that because it pleases me.

This post is not about Northern (de)Lights. Its about how to make pretzels, which was the thing I decided to contribute to the Northern (de)Lights table. Are you ready, readers? Well alrighty then.


First, you combine flour, yeast, sugar, milk, butter and a little chopped dill.

 You knead it...

... until it's nice and smooth.

Then you put it aside and let it prove....how much it wants to become some pretzels!
Not really. You just let it prove.

When it's double the size, you knock it back and divide it up.


Now it's ready to be turned in to pretzels, which involves a few steps.

Step 1: We can have lots of fun by rolling each bit in to long ropes

Step 2: There's so much we can do, but really we should just curve the ropey bits towards us...

...and then fold them over and get ready to tuck them under.

Step 3: It's just you and me and the need to tuck the end bits under.

Step 4: I can give you more, but I'm not going to because there isn't any.
Step 5: Don't you know that the time has arrived to bake your pretzels? It totally has.

Or has it??!!


In fact, there's one more thing to do. Like the bagel, another of life's great breads, pretzels take a little dip in a bath of bi-carbonate soda and water before they are baked.

Now in the oven they go.

OK, so that's how you make pretzels. If you've been following Miss Soft Crab for a while, you'll know that I have a tendency to forget to photograph critical parts of what I'm posting about. Today is no exception. By the time I pulled the pretzels out of the oven, I was in a bit of a rush to get to J's place, and I forgot to take a photo of them all golden brown and piping hot. I'm pretty sure J got one, so let's hope that she can pick up where I left off, and fill you in on some of the things that happened between pretzels and this: