Christmas Class

[judydawn]

I thought it a bit odd too Baf65.  Did you eat one whilst it was hot or are they supposed to be eaten cold? Will make a note of your suggestion. The lady sitting next to me at the demo told me to try it dipped in the brandy cream sauce and that was really nice.

[baf65]

i just had them cold cookie after the class
today the ones i made i had them warm, they were nice but had an odd taste coz of the bicarb....the ones i coated with the egg were much nicer, sweeter and yes im sure they would have been delish dipped in brandy butter!!!
ive had a look at some other pretzel recipes today and none of them say dip in baking soda! weird!

[I Love Bimby!]

Good thinking baf65. I made 3 batches for cooking classes and found that the crust of the pretzels went very dark very quickly. Had to really watch them in the oven.  If you brush them with melted butter and sprinkle with salt or cinnamon sugar don't know if you even need the egg to finish.

And with the bi-carb qty, I found it impossible to disolve it all and found that most of it just sat at the bottom of the bowl anyway, which was a huge waste!

[Thermomixer]

The bicarb soda is a less toxic way of trying to get the effect of lye solutions.  Lye is caustic soda and water mix - VERY BAD if it splashes on the skin and even WORSE in the eyes - so gloves and goggles as it says in the article here: http://www.marthabeth.com/soft_pretzels.html

It helps harden the outside of the pretzel and I made them in the Magimix about 20 years ago with lye dip.

Bicarb soda is a lot milder

[alioop]

Thermomixer, interesting info re the bicarb vs lye - but you are scaring me lately with some of your stories 

Went to the Busselton Christmas class last night and really enjoyed it.  About half the crowd were already TM owners.  Like you JudyDawn, I bought the festive booklet and they had some copies of the Indian book, so I grabbed one of those pretty quick  .  Also bought the gluten free book, as that has some really nice recipes in it - a lot don't need any gluten free substitutes - they just don't have any ingredients with gluten in them (sounds obvious, but you know what I mean...). 

Liked all the dishes.... they did a choc sorbet (I really liked it, not too sweet) from festive booklet, smoked salmon dip (nice) not sure where from, lemonade EDC, Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup (yum) gluten free book, Christmas Waldorf salad from Festive book (nice), Vege curry from full steam ahead book (nice), brandy cream sauce (mmmm) from festive booklet, and we had some pre-made pretzels (interesting, but really nice and will give these a go maybe without bicarb topping although I didn't notice any funny taste from this), and Florentine slice with the brandy sauce on top (really nice) from calendar (can anyone please PM me the recipe?). 

and......I won the door prize (a nice bottle of red) - so all in all, really enjoyed myself 

[judydawn]

Your Christmas demo was a bit different to the Adelaide one Ali - we had a crab dip which was very nice, chocolate sorbet which was interesting, strawberry & watermelon cooler (so refreshing), Christmas coleslaw, steamed beetroot salad, chicken & potato salad,(all nice)  the pretzels, bread & butter pudding (not demonstrated just premade for us to taste), frangipane fruit slice & brandy cream sauce (a real winner).  No door prize but some questions and prizes of tea towel, apron or recipe leaflets given out.

[trudy]

My daughter and I attended the Adelaide cooking class last night.  When I heard that they were making pretzels I was excited as my other daughter who at the moment is in Germany would love to make these on her return.  They looked and tasted just the same as the ones I have had in Germany just a little less Fat!!!!  So I will make the lengths a little fatter when I roll them. 
We have some German friends so I can't wait to make some for them to try.  Tenina didn't mention baking them on a pizza stone like the recipe says - what did they say in the other classes - stone or no stone!!!!

Trudy

[Wonder]

No mention of stone in Melbourne that I heard, although the lady presenting the pretzels wasn't wearing a microphone so was very difficult to hear.

[cookie1]

A stone was mentioned here though I don't see why you really need one. I plan to make savoury pretzels and quite small.

[I Love Bimby!]

I used a baking tray for all the batches I did for the cooking classes an they were fine 

[Thermomixer]

Thermomixer, interesting info re the bicarb vs lye - but you are scaring me lately with some of your stories 

Sorry  , I wonder sometimes whether I should hit Post or Escape.  Oh well, tone it down.

[Thermomixer]

I used a baking tray for all the batches I did for the cooking classes an they were fine 

If you have a heavy baking tray preheated and then place the pretzels on silicon paper and whack the paper onto the tray it is similar.

[I Love Bimby!]

Mine's just a light tray. Used baking paper as well. Although they weren't pre-heated.

Just thinking - Te only thing was that at the end they needed to be turned upside down for a minute to dry off the bicarb on the base. So guessing a stone or hot heavy tray would help that.

[trudy]

Thanks guys.  We do have a few pizza stones that my Husbands uses in the BBQ when he cooks pizzas but for me a baking tray would make more sence.

[Amanda]

Re stone or no stone - I guess it depends how crunchy you want them.
The stone would be preheated and therefore give a crisper finish.