Baking Bouchon - Recipe 101: Soft Pretzels

I want balloons and a cake and presents and a keg to celebrate the fact that I finished baking every single recipe in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  Who is throwing me a party?

Bueller?

Cricket, Cricket.

Fine - I'll celebrate by myself by eating a frozen meal because I'm still living in a hotel with no real kitchen so I can't bake myself a cake.  I will, however, have a drink to celebrate.  Because that's different than every other day.

When I set the goal for myself to bake everything in this cookbook, I had no idea that I would end up finishing so quickly.  I though it would take me at least two years to get this done, but it only took about 15 months.  Most of that was due to the fact that we found out we were moving to Korea and I was unsure whether I would be able to get the stuff I needed to bake all of this overseas (I was right).  I work far better under a deadline so in the end it was a blessing that crunch time hit and forced me to become a baking maniac for the last couple of months.

Fittingly, the last recipe in this cookbook that I tackled was a bread recipe.  It was probably the scariest of the bread recipes but also my favorite.

The dough itself is not scary and is similar to some others in the cookbook but with a starter that is much drier than the poolish and levain that is used in the other recipes.

Once the dough is ready it is divided, rolled into logs and shaped into a traditional pretzel shape.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the pretzels shaped correctly, but it was much easier than I expected.  I think Auntie Anne's would hire me if I'm ever desperate for employment / decide I need a discount on carbs.

I mentioned that this recipe is scary and that's because it comes with a warning that if you screw it up you'll be blind or erase your fingerprints.  For real.

Before the pretzels are baked they are soaked in a solution of water and food grade lye.  Lye is like baking soda on steroids and comes with a warning label that tells you how caustic it is.  It also tells you that you must wear gloves when handling it and not to splash it in your face.  I almost wore safety goggles, but I didn't.  If CA had read the warning label, he would have made me because he acts like the household safety officer.  Luckily, there was no splashing so I can still see you.

What the lye solution does is create a chemical reaction that gives pretzels their brown color when they're baked.  This is because of science so I don't understand how it works. 

I can't tell you how excited I was about how well these pretzels turned out.  First of all, I didn't injure myself.  Second, they look like real soft pretzels.  Third, they taste like real soft pretzels.  I'm so glad that the last thing I baked from this cookbook turned out really well.

I'm really proud of myself that I accomplished the goal of baking everything in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I learned A LOT and have some new skills and recipes to keep in my pocket for future use.

I feel like I need to set a new baking goal, but considering I don't have an oven or a mixing bowl or a spatula at the moment, that will have to wait.  Details.

Enjoy!
Julie