{"id":173,"date":"2015-03-31T21:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T01:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/?p=173"},"modified":"2017-03-15T20:36:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T00:36:19","slug":"before-there-was-homeownerman-there-was-pretzel-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"Before there was HomeOwnerMan, there was Pretzel King"},"content":{"rendered":"

A long, long time ago in a kingdom far, far away there was a family with six children. \u00a0The youngest of these was a little boy who was so starved for attention that he would go to great lengths to be noticed by his family. \u00a0He tried comedy acts which brought brief attention but required long hours of dreaming them up, planning them, finding the appropriate time to perform them, and making them look spontaneous. \u00a0(I should mention that the little boy is older now but still devotes a fair amount of time to this.)<\/p>\n

Observing his youngest\u00a0sister on a few occasions, who was equally starved for attention and was further saddled with middle child syndrome, he noticed that she started making a coffee cake recipe which, although it took some time, brought with it praise an accolades from the other family members. \u00a0They started heaping praise on her and spontaneously giving her attention by requesting that she make the coffee cake when they were hungry for something homemade.<\/p>\n

So the little boy got an idea. \u00a0He found a soft pretzel recipe and tried it on his family. \u00a0The recipe took some time and a great deal of effort and the pretzels\u00a0were somewhat dense, but the family loved them. \u00a0They started giving him attention. \u00a0He started making the pretzels more often. \u00a0All was good.<\/p>\n

But soon the boy realized it was a lot of work, and so he wouldn’t make the pretzels when the family asked. \u00a0But they were clever. \u00a0They started saying things like, “we’d make them, but they don’t come out as good as yours.” \u00a0That worked for a while, and even stirred the boy into improving his own\u00a0recipe. \u00a0He looked up other recipes. \u00a0He experimented with the recipe. \u00a0He got advice from his grandmother, who was an expert at all sorts of breads and foods. \u00a0The pretzels gradually became lighter and of better quality.<\/p>\n

But again, he began to resist the effort of making them. \u00a0Until one day when a sister, much older and more clever than he, came up with a new strategy. \u00a0She began calling him “Pretzel King”, and began saying things like “Pretzel King makes the ~best~ pretzels” and spinning yarns about “the Pretzel Kingdom” and his “Pretzel subjects.” \u00a0He so loved these stories that he went back to the kitchen to again make pretzels, passing the time and work with visions of his kingdom. \u00a0The stories became more fanciful; the pretzels reached a pinnacle. \u00a0The little boy had truly become “The Pretzel King.”<\/p>\n

For many years the Pretzel King guarded his recipe, keeping it close and modifying it only slightly. \u00a0In the advent of bread machines the most laborious part, kneading the dough, \u00a0became much simpler. \u00a0Later, he even added the use of commercial style mixers to the process. \u00a0But now, for all to make, is the Pretzel King’s secret recipe.<\/p>\n

Enjoy them. \u00a0Make them for your family. \u00a0Have your own fantasy kingdom.<\/p>\n

\"soft_pretzel\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Soft Pretzel Recipe<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dough Ingredients:<\/p>\n

1 \u00bc cup water (warm)<\/p>\n

2 tablespoon Margarine<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon\u00a0Sugar<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon Salt<\/p>\n

4 cups flour (or 2 cups whole wheat\u00a0and\u00a02 cups white)<\/p>\n

1 tablespoon\u00a0yeast<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Preparation ingredients:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bc cup baking soda<\/p>\n

1 egg<\/p>\n

\u00bc cup Kosher Salt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a bread machine add dough ingredients in order, or if kneading by hand, put the water, melted margarine, yeast and sugar in the bottom of a large glass bowl and mix until dissolved.\u00a0 Allow yeast to activate for 5 minutes.\u00a0 Add flour gradually, mixing well until it becomes too thick to mix.\u00a0 Then knead in the rest of the flour and add more until the dough is no longer sticky.\u00a0 Work the dough hard for 3 – 4 minutes until smooth, then set aside in a bowl in a warm area to rise for 30 min to an hour.<\/p>\n

Pre-heat oven to 375\u00b0 F.\u00a0 Divide the dough into 12 equal parts.\u00a0 Roll each dough ball into a 18\u201d x \u00be\u201d rope, and twist into traditional shapes or braid into tiny loaves or wreaths.<\/p>\n

Boil 4 cups of water and add \u00bc cup baking soda.\u00a0 Blanch the pretzels in the solution until they float to the surface, and remove them with a slotted spoon.\u00a0 Place them on cookie racks to drip dry.\u00a0 Move them to cookie sheets.\u00a0 Prepare an egg wash by beating the egg with 2 tablespoons of water.\u00a0 Brush liberally on each pretzel.\u00a0 Sprinkle kosher salt on them to liking.\u00a0 Bake for 20-30 minutes until they are golden brown.\u00a0 Cool on cookie racks or eat while still warm.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A long, long time ago in a kingdom far, far away there was a family with six children. \u00a0The youngest of these was a little boy who was so starved for attention that he would go to great lengths to be noticed by his family. \u00a0He tried comedy acts which brought brief attention but required … Continue reading “Before there was HomeOwnerMan, there was Pretzel King”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[18,9,19,11],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeownerman_food","category-uncategorized","tag-food","tag-humor","tag-pretzels","tag-superhero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/homeownerman.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}