One of the things I remember most about living in NYC were the pretzel carts that dotted the corners throughout Greenwich Village. Sure I remember the hot dog carts, but to be honest, I’m more of a fan of Chicago dogs than New York dogs (sorry NYC!). But I loved those pretzel carts, serving up hot, soft pretzels drizzled with American style, yellow mustard, none of that dijon or whole grain stuff!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about them. But my love of pretzels goes much farther back to when I was a little kid. In fact, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love pretzels, from the rock hard sourdough pretzels of the Pennsylvania dutch to those warm, soft festival treats.

As a kid, I had even attempted to make soft pretzels a time or two. They were good, but not great, and, at the time, they seemed to be an awful lot of work. It’s amazing how perception changes as you grow older. Yesterday, I thought I’d surprise my wife with a batch of freshly baked pretzels when she arrived home from work, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make them. It is even a breeze to form them, something I remember as being so difficult as to be almost impossible!

Since I hadn’t made pretzels in many, many years (more than I want to remember!) I had to do a little research. While most recipes had a relatively consistent set of ingredients, I found large variances in the boiling stage (the most important stage of pretzel making) ranging from a quick dip of 5 seconds to 1 minute on each side. In the end, I did what I always do, taking what I believed to be the best ideas from many recipes and created my own. I opted not to brush the boiled pretzels with eggwash before baking, but if you want a shinier crust than I achieved you might want to add that step, brushing the pretzels before sprinkling with salt.

While you can, sometimes, find “pretzel” salt, don’t bother. Because it is a specialty salt you will pay a premium for it compared to kosher salt, which works quite well.

Finally, in commercial production of pretzels, they are often boiled in a lye solution. Lye is rather caustic stuff and can easily cause severe burns if you get some on you. Stay away from the stuff. Instead most people (me included) use baking soda to raise the ph of the boiling water to give a mildly alkaline solution. Purist say they can taste the difference, but it is very minor, and believe me, it is not worth the risk of an alkaline burn.

Soft Pretzels
makes 6

1 tsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 1/2-3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. iodized salt
1 cup milk, warmed to 100-110°F
kosher salt

1/4 cup baking soda
4 cups water

Mix together the yeast and the sugar. Add the warm milk and allow the yeast to activate. Add 2 1/2 cups flour and the iodized salt and mix. Knead for 5-7 minutes, adding more flour, if necessary, to form a soft, but not sticky dough. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp towel and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 425°F. Degas the dough, divide into 6 portions and roll into 6 strands.

Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then one by one stretch to 18″ and form into pretzels. To form: create a loop with the bottom closest to you and cross the ends.

Fold the ends back down over the loop, extending the ends just slightly.

For for a more professional look you can give the ends a half twist before bring them back down.

Press the ends down lightly to secure but don’t mash the pretzel. Meanwhile bring the water and baking soda to a boil in large pot. The water should be 2-3″ deep. If not, add more water and baking soda, keeping the ratio of 1/4 cup baking soda for every 4 cups of water. Let the water come to a gentle, not rolling boil. One at a time, place the pretzels in the water, cook for 20 seconds, flip and cook for 20 seconds longer. Remove from water, allow to drain, then place on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat with all the pretzels. Allow each pretzel to dry for about 1 minute then sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. The pretzel should be moist and tacky, but if it is too wet the salt will just melt. Bake the pretzels for approximately 10-13 minutes or until a deep golden brown. Remove from oven, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for a few minutes before tasting.

To rewarm pretzels, place in a brown paper bag. Sprinkle the bag generously with water and heat in a 350°F oven. Whatever you do, don’t rewarm them in the microwave, it will just make them tough and chewy!!!

This past weekend I celebrated my 40th birthday. I wasn’t nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be. Sure, I’ve come to the realization that I’m not as young as I used to be, but I also came to the realization that you are only as old as you feel. I certainly don’t act and feel like I thought 40 year olds act and felt, when I was a teenager.

The weekend was rather low key. No major party, just good times with family. My parents made the trip up from Indiana and my brother and his wife came up from Madison, WI to help me celebrate, and to have our family “Christmas.” Hey, better late than never. We filled the weekend with good food, plenty of games, and lots of laughter….and the occasional Hurricane.

We also filled with weekend with plenty of good food. For my birthday dinner, I chose hamburgers, done on the grill. Yes, I know, it’s not fancy, and surely doesn’t do justice to a chef’s birthday dinner, but I love burgers and besides, we had a big day of eating ahead of us the following day. The following morning started with coffee and Eggs Benedict, using another batch of homemade English Muffins. Eggs Benedict are another one of those dishes that I never tire of, and if I wasn’t afraid of what it would do to my arteries, I’d probably eat it a couple times a week!

Our main meal of the weekend was a full blown holiday feast with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, in other words, the whole works. Over the last few years I have forsaken roasting the turkey and, instead, grilled the turkey in my Weber grill, flavoring it with hickory smoke. As usual, everyone ate too much, especially my brother who refuses to listen to both his body and our warnings about his past years’ gluttony.

Sunday lunch, leftovers, was saved by my brother and his wife, who had brought along a bunch of home canned pickles and relishes, including their fabulous Dilly Beans.

Overall, the weekend was a wonderful success and there were plenty of food highlights, as there always is when my family gets together. One of the standouts was this wonderful pie my wife created. She conceived of the idea a week or so ago while eating a snack of banana and peanut butter pretzels. While, at first, it might seem a little strange, the flavors work quite well together. The pie is ready a few hours after being made, but I found that allowing the pie to sit overnight allows the flavors to meld a little more. The best part is that the pretzel crust was still crunchy 3 days later, though I doubt the pie will last that long.

Peanut Butter Pie with Preztel Crust

FOR CRUST:
2 1/2 cups pretzels, crushed
3 Tbspl brown sugar
3/4 cup butter melted

FOR FILLING:
3/4 cup peanut butter, creamy
1 package (3oz) cream cheese, room temp.
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 container (12oz) whipped topping, thawed
3 bananas, peeled and sliced 1/4″ thick

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all the ingredients for the crust and mix well. Save 1/4 cup of pretzel mixture and spread the rest into a 10″ pie tin,working all the way up the sides and making sure that the crust is even. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely before filling. Sprinkle remaining pretzel mixture on s cookie and bake 10-12 minutes. Cool

In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter and cream cheese. Add 1/3 of the whipped topping and the sugar and beat until smooth and no lumps remain. Add remaining whipped topping and gently fold in until well combined. Fill crust with 1/2 of the filling then top with sliced bananas. Top with remaining peanut butter mousse. Garnish with remaining crushed pretzels and chill for 3 hours or overnight before serving.