Care for a Ketchup...I mean Catch-Up

So what has happened the past few months, well, basically year I have been missing.

Our Great Dane puppy grew into a 120 pound beautiful beast...that still acts like a puppy, and has an addiction to digging. Actually, I think she just digs so that the holes can collect rain water. She's a "wateraholic". And it can get ugly! Mabel and Stella have the same birthday! Stella will be 7 and Mabel will be 1 on February 20th!

And then she got fixed so we wouldn't have any little Mabel's running around.

We moved...without Jason...without movers. You heard about that earlier.

Jason came HOME, TWO MONTHS EARLY!

Ava started second grade...and has no teeth!

Layla started Kindergarten and got her first homework assignment.

Now to what I made today. Saturday's are always my slow cooker day...that way I can spend my day with the family...you know, doing laundry, cleaning the floors...although Jason and I did get in a few hours of Mario Kart today! That's what we do when the girls are at their friend's house! We don't have to share!  BUT, this afternoon, I managed to make a batch of stuffed pretzels. I don't think one word can describe them...they turned out wonderful, delicious, perfect, tasty, beautiful and did I say wonderful? 

I stuffed them with pastrami and cheddar...and then after their water bath I topped them with an egg wash, kosher salt and dried onion. I really think the dried onion added something special. 

The yeast coming alive looks like a brain!

Make sure the dough is completely scraped off the sides!

At the start of the rising process.

And this is the finished rising product!

Break the dough in half, and then with one of the halves, make 4 disks, with the other half, I made 6 smaller disks.

Add whatever you want to the center. Then fold and make sure to close all seems. 

Before the water bath. 

Make sure to flip larger sticks at about 2 minutes and smaller sticks after a minute.

Top with the egg wash, plenty of salt and any other herbs you prefer. 

The recipe I used is for pretzel pizza bites, but I changed it to make pretzel sticks, and obviously only used pastrami and cheddar. You can add as much to the center of the dough as you want, just make sure there is ample room to close. Everything I changed, I'll put in parenthesis...but the base of the recipe I didn't change. 

Stuffed Pretzel Sticks

Adapted from Pizza Pretzel Bites

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast
3 ounces unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
Canola oil
Pepperoni slices, cut into small pieces
Shredded mozzarella cheese
5 quarts water
3/4 cup baking soda
1 whole egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
Coarse sea salt
Pizza sauce-for serving

directions:

1.  Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.

2. Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands. ( I find that there is no need to do this when making bread, I could be wrong, but just transferring to an oiled bowl and then flipping the dough, has never failed me.)

3. Oil a bowl with canola oil, add the dough and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. (I just use a Pam or olive oil spray, I don't use regular oil.)

4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot over high heat and carefully add the baking soda.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 ounces each. Roll each piece into a long rope measuring 22 inches and shape. Cut the dough into one inch pieces to make the pretzel bites. Roll each bite flat with a rolling pin. Stuff each bite with pepperoni and cheese. Fold over the dough and pinch the ends. Set bites on a baking sheet and continue until all pretzel bites are stuffed. (I really don't like putting my dough onto a floured surface after it has risen. So I just sprayed down a cutting board and worked on that. I also hate rolling because I think it makes the dough too dense. It's actually just as easy to work it with your hands into the shape you want it. I halved my dough. With the first half I made into 4 large sticks and then stuffed. The second half I made 6 smaller sticks. The sticks I am referring to is what they will look like after you have stuffed and then folded. I the beginning, they are more like disks.)

6. Boil the pretzel bites in the water solution in batches. We did about 15 bites at a time. Boil for about 30 seconds. Remove with a large slotted spoon. Place pretzel bites on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or a Silpat.  Make sure they are not touching.  Brush the tops with the egg wash and season liberally with the salt. Place into the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. (Because what I made were larger than bites, boil on each side for at least a minute and then turn.)

7. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes. Serve warm with pizza sauce. (Obviously, pizza sauce didn't work with mine! I prefer good ole' mustard with pastrami!).