So today being my first day back from our mini jaunt to NYC I was pretty much out of it. Driving home yesterday we hit some pretty bad traffic that put us in the car for about 8 hours instead of 6. Cranky, tired and blah today I had orders to get out so I put on my chef hat and got to baking. THANKFULLY the orders came out awesome.
Well… see Mr. Fantabulous HAS to have a New Year’s Pretzel on NYE. Apparently it’s to provide you with good luck. *shrugs* I’m still waiting on the good luck part to come true. I’ve never made one and have always bought one. I figured since I was already covered in flour I would make him one. So I googled it and unfortunately came up empty handed on exactly what they were made out. I knew some type of sweet dough – egg brioche perhaps? Sweet roll dough? Coffee Cake dough? So I finally called the store where I get them and just asked what type of dough it was made out of. They told me what it’s like – think of a coffee cake as a bread.
So I took off my chef hat (Mr. Fantabulous blames that being the reason why…. well you’ll see why later in the pictures) and put on my engineer’s hat. I got to ‘cipherin’ and put together a hybrid dough. The dough rose BEAUTIFULLY.. all those strands of dough so soft and billowy! I was so excited. I rolled it out, filled it and made a long, very long…no I mean like 4′ long rope. Now keep in mind, I was still ‘car-lagged’ and cranky as my foot was killing me so I wasn’t exactly “all there” today. So I form the pretzel (I SWEAR it was a pretzel when it was shaped… HONEST!.. LOL) and cover it to rise. An hour later I come out and OMG.. I think it swallowed the pan it was proofing on WHOLE!
I couldn’t ‘unshape’ it so I baked it figuring maybe Mr. Fantabulous wouldn’t notice it and I could “fool” him by icing it on top in the pretzel shape.
Um no.. LOL Basically this thing came out looking like it was on steroids! I mean we’re talking MAJOR STEROIDS! I think I created the MAMMOUTH NEW YEARS PRETZEL! This thing is so big that it completely covers my glass turkey platter. It’s larger than a place mat in all ways. Now surprisingly it’s not heavy but rather light and airy.
So as you can see it’s MASSIVE. It smells amazing and I honestly could drink the glaze I made for it. So I slather on the glaze to give it a more ‘refined’ pretzel shape.
Mr. Fantabulous goes out to the kitchen and all I hear is “WTH??? HOLY S***!!! What happened??? Are you sure it’ s not going to break the table??? It’s HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!!! Wait! You took off your chef hat didn’t you??? See I told you that you this is what happens when you don’t wear your chef hat!” LOL I couldn’t stop laughing because he was avoiding this thing like the plague. He kept saying “It may eat me!” LOL
Then my darling husband does this… Gotta love the Engineer!
Yeah this thing is behemoth to say the least! So if it’s true and they are to bring you good luck, then this monster should bring me in the mother load of good luck! Lord knows we need it!
Happy New Year!
Christie Haun says
Hey there Lori!
I just came across this article while looking for a Brioche bread recipe. I just discovered Brioche, and Loved it! Now I’m thinking I may want to try to make some.
But This? This like what happened to Me when I tried to make Hawaiian Bread.
The first try….when I let the dough rise, and came back to it, I couldn’t Find the loaf pan it was sitting in! It was the Loaf that Ate Whittier, CA! But, I divided the dough, put it in Two pans, and baked the most Delicious bread I had ever done!
So……even though this is 8 years after the article, tell Mr Fantabulous to always remember… Don’t judge a Book (or Baked good) but it’s Cover!
Happy 2019 to Both of you!
P.S. I have never heard of a NYV Pretzel. Is there an Actual recipe?
TKWAdmin says
Hi Christie
Lol so happy I’m not the only one that has had bread issues. But with practice it does get better. The NYE Pretzel is a Pittsburgh thing I think. No, my recipe isn’t posted.
Best Kitchen Wishes!