Project Pretzel

I had so much fun working on "Project Pizza" earlier this summer with my son that we decided to pick another project to play with together in the kitchen. This time around, we have Project Pretzel!  It's really chocolate brioche bread twisted into pretzel shape.  I picked it because my son loves pretzels and chocolate (of course), and I'm happy to try a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. 

I've only worked with yeast twice and only in the last month or so, and both times with my little one at that!  I was thinking it's a little strange to pick these more complicated recipes to do with him but I think they're a little more interesting and allow for more hands-on experience.

I'm really excited because recently, I sense a shift in my 8-year old's previous disdain for things cooking-related. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll continue in that direction.  When I get my monthly Food Network magazine, I like to save the quizzes to go through together with him.  We get a good laugh out of it; he's really into learning about little-known food facts and trivia.  He was actually a bit obsessed with a previous issue featuring the 50 ice-creams of the 50 states.  It just goes to show that love of ice cream is a universal thing and you can always count on it to bond people together!

The little guy says it's like a "chocolate chip brain"!  How's that for appetizing. : )

Luckily, the little one is a hearty eater (particularly when it comes to desserts) and has a surprisingly sharp palate - though maybe children just generally have a keener sense of taste.  So even if he might not want to cook quite as much as mom does in the future, hopefully, we can still talk about food all the time together!

Now back to this pretzel project of ours.  I took a risk and divided the recipe in half to make 4 pretzels.  Can you even do that with yeast recipes?  I was about to find out.  And luckily, the answer is yes - at least it worked in this case (huge relief)!  I'd heard about this brioche dough being very thick, and it needs a long mixing/knead time using the stand mixer.  I'd actually read a few tales of broken mixers (that made me seriously nervous!) so I really wanted to turn the volume down and hopefully have an easier time with it. 

We were very excited when it worked!  The "brain" about doubled in size...

I'm glad we divided the recipe.  It was more manageable for the two of us to do it that way. But let me tell you something.  The mixing process for the dough?  The best word I can think of to describe it is...violent!  Seriously, the mixer is rocking and knocking like the bowl is about to fly out!  I used my large glass mixing bowl and I think the regular stainless steel might have been a better choice given how much rocking was going on.  I literally had to hold on to the bowl the whole time.  My son got a kick out of the drama, of course, and I am just happy to report that the mixer and bowl survived and all is well in the end.

After getting our hands dirty, rolling and twisting, the pretzels are ready for the oven.

I'm amazed we actually managed to make brioche and even got some of those signature long strains in the dough.  It's pretty neat for a little home project. These pretzels were really good warm from the oven and has that signature brioche flavor.  I'm admittedly not be a huge lover of brioche and while my son definitely enjoyed his creation, he probably prefers the typical salty pretzels given a choice.  The process itself was the highlight of this project.  We just had a really great time doing this project together!  My son tells me he doesn't really like to cook but he likes these kinds of projects.  Well, I'm willing to call it whatever he wants!

This specific project might be a one-time event (I can't live through the drama of that dough mixing again) but the amount of fun the little one and I had making these together, the chance to laugh and learn through it, was truly priceless.  

Apparently, the long mixing time creates the brioche strands in the dough

When I asked, my little one said he thought this project was even more fun than Project Pizza, which says a lot since I know, taste-wise, he preferred chowing down on that homemade pizza more.  I think getting the chance to roll the dough and shape the pretzel - all those steps - really made it fun for him, and definitely for me!  Plus, all that knocking and rocking of the mixer provided a lot of excitement.

We had 4 pretzels from our wee project.  The two of us enjoyed one fresh out of the oven and packed one up to bring over to his cousins (his youngest cousin was the biggest fan of it).  We saved the other two to share with Daddy.  What we had left over the next day, I refreshed by warming back up in a low oven for a few minutes.  It made a very good breakfast!


Project Pretzel started early one morning after breakfast.  First, we started slow with a little mixing and stirring.

I am fairly clueless when it comes to working with yeast.  The recipe specifies dissolving instant yeast with milk but not whether the milk needs to be warm. I looked on my packet of yeast, which said to use liquid in the 110-115 degree range and that's what I did.  I heated up the milk for a few seconds in the microwave and tested it with a thermometer. The young chef poured the milk-yeast he combined into the flour and eggs (which he cracked!).

Look - even the spatula is smiling!  (I did not do that on purpose...)

It was just the two of us at home so there are no pictures of me hanging on to my mixing bowl for dear life when it was rocking and rolling for almost ten minutes.  You'll have to trust me on that one.  

Things get a lot calmer once you switch over to the dough hook and continue working the dough on low-speed.  We had a different (much calmer) problem at this point.  Since we were working with half the recipe, the dough hook wasn't grabbing the dough so I had to stir the dough around quite a bit with a rubber spatula to get it into the hook and we needed a few extra minutes to get the dough into a smooth ball.  Here's the dough (above) after all the mixing by the stand mixer.  The chocolate chips get added at this point and once mixed, it needs to rise in a warm spot for 2 hours until about doubled in size.  Or you could plain ahead and let it rise in the fridge overnight or 24 hours.

Ironically, it was a chilly morning the day we made this so I was worried about finding a warm spot and not altogether confident the dough would rise.  I ended up putting it in the oven after I'd warmed it for a few minutes but then immediately shut down.  Happily, it worked though some of the chocolate chips started melting.  Seeing the dough expand and rise is really cool and something kids - and adults - can get excited about!

The rolling and stretching part was a lot easier than I imagined!  As you can tell, our chocolate chip pretzels are turning to plain chocolate pretzels because the chips are melting under our hands and spreading within the dough. The good news is we weren't getting too much on our hands.  I think that should you want more distant chocolate chip pretzels, letting the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator and then taking it out at room temperature to finish, might help.

As for the actual rolling, we didn't need any flour or oil on the work surface. We simply rolled the dough out lightly and lifted it up periodically to make sure it wasn't sticking.  Any broken parts can easily be mended.  We weren't going for perfection, just fun and moderate success!  It would've even been possible to make smaller, mini pretzels (had I thought of it at the time).

My son thought it was pretty cool when the pretzel shape came to life.  After I showed him how it's done, he was able to shape them himself.

He made and brushed on a bit of a salty egg wash.  Then, we let it rest about 15 minutes before brushing them again and sprinkling on some coarse sugar (we used turbinado).  The little one was disappointed we weren't sprinkling salt on top...he loves to sneak salt into his mouth given the chance. 

Finally - they were ready for the oven! We were so excited!  Luckily, they were ready in just 12 minutes and they smelled wonderfully chocolaty.

And that's our homemade chocolate "chip" brioche pretzels for you!  We let them cool a bit but dug in while they were still warm.  The outer crust is ever so slightly crisp and the flavor is distinct brioche - a bit sweet and buttery, and, in this case, all wrapped up in dark chocolate.

This was a wonderful kitchen project that I'll remember for a long time for many reasons.  A big, huge thank you to my Jalen for his hard work!  You made it really fun and I'm amazed to see all that you can do already!  : )


Recipe: 

Chocolate Chip Brioche Pretzels

I trust you're all familiar with Smitten Kitchen and the cookbook where this recipe comes from. Of course, I gravitated to the baking section and this recipe called out to me because of the general idea of making pretzels and the fact that it had chocolate chips in it!  I'd never done anything like it before and it seemed like an interesting challenge.

You can find this particular recipe here via The Kitch. I recommend you take a look at your instant yeast packets for instructions on what temperature your liquid should be at to activate the yeast. And as I mentioned, I divided the recipe in half, and it worked.  From my experience, I do forewarn you about those 10 minutes of mixing with the stand mixer where your mixing bowl is going to rock and knock like you've never seen it before. You must watch closely and I recommend you hang on to your mixing bowl!