Pretzels!

After watching a pretzel throwdown on Throwdown with Bobby Flay this past week, I was struck by the sudden desire to make pretzels. A quick google search led me to Bobby Flay's recipe on Food Network's site. I'm happy to say it worked like a charm.

I thought making pretzels would be complicated, but the only "hard" part was worrying over whether or not I killed the yeast. (I didn't!) I also didn't have any eggs (hard to believe, I know... but I used the last ones baking zucchini-chocolate-chip muffins last weekend), so I used butter and milk as a "wash." It worked fine.

Boiling the pretzels in the baking soda and water mixture gives them the unique texture and flavor I love about pretzels. Rolling them out was fun, although I think it will take some practice to get them looking uniform.

Once they came out of the oven, I brushed butter over them and on half, I "sprinkled" (I put it in quotation marks because it may have been more like dumping...) cinnamon sugar on top. The others I just left plain, as I didn't have any kosher salt to put on them.

Then, I ate one. Oh my. The result was plush but slightly chewy, slightly salty and sweet (I sampled a cinnamon sugar one). I was reminded of Auntie Anne's pretzels-- but better and fresher.

So, should you be wondering what to bake next, I highly recommend trying pretzels. Next up for me? Bagels.