soft pretzels.

well friends, i've been raving for long enough without sharing the love with you all. it's finally time to let you in on all my soft pretzel secrets so that you too can participate in the epic-ness that is super sexy soft pretzel wednesdays. the reason it has taken 5 weeks for me to share this with you is because it took me 5 tries to get the recipe perfect. but let me assure you, friends, that is in fact perfect. 
don't question me on this one.

ingredients

soft pretzels:

1 ½ cups warm water

2 ¼ tsp. yeast (1 package)

1 tsp. oil

1 tsp. honey

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. sugar

4 cups flour

½ cup baking soda

1 egg, beaten

coarse salt

cheese sauce:

velveeta cheese

black pepper

greek seasoning

photography by kelli

1. mix water, yeast, oil, honey, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. cool tip: pour the oil first, then use the same tsp. for the honey and the honey won't stick. by the time you'v added all the ingredients, the yeast should have gotten a little foamy.

2. add 4 cups of flour and mix with a large spoon until dough is thick. then use your hands to begin kneading the dough. i usually take the dough out of the bowl and knead for about 10 minutes, adding a little bit of flour as needed so that dough isn't too sticky. roll into a ball. about now is when you should get a big pot of water boiling on the stove.

3. cut the dough into 8 pieces using a serrated knife. i just cut it right through like a pizza--all the way down the middle, and then each piece in half two more times. math and geometry and stuff.

4. this is the fun part! (and the part that i'm worst at...) roll out each piece of dough into a long snake and twist it into a pretzel shape. lyss is the pro at this, so she usually makes mine for me. #realtalk: my pretzels are horrifically ugly. lyss says it's best to roll the dough inside-out, so that when you press the ends together, they stick and the pretzel keeps its shape. 

5. this is the hardest part. once you have your pretzels shaped, pour ½ cup baking soda into your boiling pot of water. using a large spatula (or two, if you're being extra careful) lower one pretzel at a time into the boiling water. let it sit for 30 seconds, and then carefully lift it out of the water onto a pan covered with parchment paper. be careful with this step!!! if you're not super careful in lowering and lifting the pretzels in and out of the water, they will fall apart and lose their beautiful pretzel shape.

6. after your pretzels are all boiled and laid out on cookie sheets, rub the top of each one with beaten egg. as you can see in the pictures, we usually use a folded napkin to do this, because we are domestic college students and stuff. except i just recently purchased a basting brush and it was an awesome gift to myself, so pretzel night just got a little classier, folks. after the pretzels are egg-washed, sprinkle them with coarse salt. i just use sea salt and i use it generously.

7. bake at 375° for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. basically these are going to come out looking like pure heaven, and you might not be able to handle it. it's okay. i've been there.

8. while the pretzels are baking, i make the cheese sauce. i slice up a chunk about 2 inches thick of velveeta cheese, add a few Tbs of milk, and heat on low in a sauce pan. once the sauce is all melted together, i add a dash of black pepper and greek seasoning. most people don't have greek seasoning, but i'm gonna tell you right now that its the secret ingredient in this cheese sauce. i'm 100% convinced that greek seasoning can fix almost every culinary disaster there is. 

9. eat up!



i'm so happy i finally get to share this with you guys! super sexy soft pretzel wednesday nights have been the highlight of my weeks for the past month, and we all know how much i love sharing what i love with everyone else. so make some pretzels this wednesday and tweet me with the pics so i can be a part of your super sexy soft pretzel wednesday too!

chicken alfredo pizza with pizza hut style crust.

welp.

i made some really fattening and delicious food again. this time it was inspired by a dream. 

it's normal to dream about pizza, right? 

good. 

anyways, i was inspired in a dream to make chicken alfredo pizza with homemade pizza hut style crust, and since i had all the right ingredients, i decided tuesday, may 7th was the day to do it.

chicken alfredo pizza with pizza hut style crust

ingredients:

crust:

1 Tbs sugar
1 package dry yeast

1/4 cup dry milk
1 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 1/3 cup warm water
3 1/2-4 cups flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (for dough)

more vegetable oil (a little in the bottom of each pan)

sauce: 

3 Tbs butter
1 cup milk (whole is best, but whatever will work)
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan (the powder kind works if that's all you have)
1 tsp greek seasoning
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
salt&pepper to taste (i put a lot)

toppings: 

grated mozzarella cheese

grates parmesan cheese (not the powder kind)

1 chicken breast cooked and sliced

1 tomato diced small and cooked for about 7 minutes at 350°

(that's all i used, but you could add cooked spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, or pretty much anything else and it would be extra delicious)

i didn't take great pictures for this because i kind of made it in a hurry to get the dough rising, but hopefully my directions will be good enough for that part at least.

first you're going to make your crust dough: 

put yeast, sugar, salt, and dry milk in a large bowl. add water and stir to mix well. allow to sit for two minutes. add oil and stir again. add flour and stir until dough forms and flour is absorbed. you'll probably have to use your hands for this. knead for about 10 minutes. if the dough is too dry, add a little bit of water, and if it's too wet, add a little bit of flour. you know the law drill. (mulan, anyone?)

put the dough in a nice, warm place. i'm the most impatient person when it comes to letting dough rise, so i usually just turn my oven on to the lowest temp (170°) and put the bowl of dough in there for about 40 minutes instead of letting it sit out for 90. this makes the edges a little crispy, but it still works for me. 

while this is happening, you can prepare your 4 pans. i used 9" round cake pans, but you could use 2 9"x13" cake pans or 2 larger round pans if you wanted to.  

prepare the pans by putting a drop of vegetable oil in the bottom of each and spreading it all over the bottom and sides with a paper towel. this is where you would sprinkle the pans with cornmeal if you had it, but since i didn't, i sprinkled them with garlic salt and oregano instead. 

after it's risen, split your dough into 4 even balls, and place each ball in a pan. then flatten them out all along the bottom and up the sides. i just did this with my hands. actually, i had canadian roomate do it, and she did great. once all the dough is flattened, let it rise a little bit more in the pans while you finish your sauce and toppings.

chicken: 

i've taught you how to do this a hundred times, so go here for the old directions. all i changed this time was that i also covered each half of the chicken breast in pesto sauce as well, and since i only cooked one breast, it took about half the time.

{this is a picture from another recipe. i only used one breast cut in half.}

sauce: 

melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a small sauce pan. add about a quarter of the milk and then the flour. whisk it like crazy before it gets clumpy. then add the rest of the milk and the parmesan. then season the crap out of that sauce. y'all know i don't actually use measurements, but what i listed above should be close enough. whisk it all together and then let it come to a boil for a couple minutes to thicken. if it gets too thick, add a little bit of milk until it's the right consistency.

and now for the assemblage:

put a big scoop of sauce on each crust, and spread it out leaving a little lip of dough for the crust. then sprinkle a tiny bit of mozzarella cheese over top. then lay out slices of chicken over the whole thing, and sprinkle with your cooked tomatoes. then load a bunch more mozzarella cheese on top, and a handful of freshly grated parmesan over that. 

{in the process}

put two pizzas in the oven at a time, and cook for about 15 minutes at 350°, or until the edges of the crust are brown and the center is fully cooked. 

the crust will be nice and thick and fluffy, just how we like it.

bon appétit!

and p.s. don't forget about throwback thursday tomorrow! link-up starts at midnight!

white chocolate peppermint pretzels.

so here's the thing, you guys. i kind of made christmas my hobby this year.

i'm not really sure what i'm going to do with myself once it's over. 

from decorating our apartment, crafting, making christmas cards, helping with the food for the dance faculty christmas party, and making christmas treats for friends and (fhe) family, the season has definitely kept me busy! 

now that i'm home i'm going to relax a little, do some baking, and read a couple of books in my spare time. 

here is the last christmas project i will share with you guys, and then i promise i'll move on to other things. :)

white chocolate and peppermint dipped pretzels

ingredients:

pretzels of any shape or size

white chocolate almond bark

a few candy canes

wax paper

1. break several candy canes in pieces, place them in a ziploc, and then smash them up until you have pretty tiny pieces. i broke them with the bottom end of a ragu pasta sauce jar. i find myself doing this a lot, so maybe i should invest in a rolling pin? also, this step may or may not wake up your napping roommates. 

2. this is the only tricky part, because heating almond bark is a delicate matter. i took 4 squares at a time in a small glass mixing bowl and heated them for 60 seconds on high. then i stirred a tiny bit and microwaved in 15 second intervals, stirring in between each, until the bark was all melted. do not overheat. or it will be destroyed. :(
i used the entire package of almond bark, but only heated it 4 squares at a time.

julie likes to watch me during my projects. and sometimes when i am doing my hair, which gets a little bit weird.

3. i decided not to deal with dipping the entire pretzel in the almond bark and just did half of it instead. that way i didn't have to deal with lifting the pretzel with a fork and all that. plus i kind of think they look cute with  only half dipped. and obviously food is better when it is cute. 

dip half the pretzel in almond bark, and then dip the front in the mashed peppermint pieces. lay on wax paper to dry. also, i did half the pretzels with peppermint, and half with just almond bark.

4. we gave these away as treats to our fhe family members, some good friends, and our neighbors, because i obviously think starting projects like this are way more exciting than studying for finals. we used some clear bags, stars cut out of red and green paint samples, and string to package them and deliver. the envelopes have christmas cards from our fhe family or our apartment in them, which i shared in this post.  

merry christmas from apartment 17!

if i could share these treats with all of you readers, i would!

chicken pesto buns.

YOU GUYS. 

i did something amazing. 

i've literally been thinking about this recipe idea for the past two months, and a couple of weeks ago, i actually did something about it. 

and it was ~heaven. 

if you actually know me in person, you know that when something i create turns out the way i want it to, i have an endless stream of mini heart attacks any time i look at it. and i may or may not bounce up and down in excitement, smiling, laughing, and heaven-help-me, even squealing, because when the vision meets reality, it's like a little piece of heaven manifest in my kitchen. 

but whatever. 

chicken pesto buns 

i've been trying to come up with something to call these things besides 'chicken pesto balls' since i made them, and finally settled on the canadian word for rolls, i.e. buns. something this delicious just shouldn't be referred to as balls, amiright?

ingredients:

rhodes rolls
cooked, shredded chicken

kirkland pesto sauce (the best pre-made pesto i've ever tried. you can get it at costco and i am highly recommending it.)

italian seasonings

minced garlic

butter

shredded mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese to top (optional)

1. lay your rolls out in a greased pan, cover with a greased piece of saran wrap and let them thaw.  when i make rolls out of these, i let them thaw and rise for about 4 hours, but i really only let these sit out for maybe 2? they were thawed completely, and risen just a little bit. 

2. while the dough is thawing and rising, take all of the other ingredients besides the cheeses and mix together in a bowl. i just cooked my chicken in a small saucepan with water, a little butter, and some italian seasoning for about 15 minutes before shredding it. also, i didn't really measure anything so....sorry, guys. but i used a couple tablespoons of melted butter, LOTS of pesto (the more the better), one large chicken breast, about a tsp of fresh minced garlic, and a few good dashes of italian seasoning.

note: if you prefer a bite-sized snack, follow this next step. if not, skip it.

2. cut each roll in half with kitchen scissors. (that was big, i know.)

3. flatten out your dough into little circles with enough room to add filling. not too thin though, or the dough will tear. 

5. add as big a spoonful as your dough can handle in the center, and a nice big pinch of mozzarella as well. and then probably add more mozzarella, because like, is there anything better than cheese? no. 

6. now you are going to grab the ends of your dough, stretch them into the center, and pinch them all together, like so:

(blurry, but you get the gist.)

7. once you fold all the balls buns up, place a whole crapload of them on one greased cookie sheet, because they barely expand at all. then bake them at 350° for about 15 minutes.
i totally don't know if that's how long i cooked them so.....

 


oh my gosh, i'm getting excited just by looking at them again.

8. when they are done, rub a little butter and sprinkle a little parm on top of each one, then dip them in some marinara sauce, and enjoy with friends! because food is like a thousand times better when your friends are there to compliment you on it uplift and edify your life by enjoying it with you.



also, i've officially decided that death by good food is the way i want to go, you guys. mmm.....