I have said that if I go to the CIA course, it will be to make me a more confident baker. The pretzels that I made this morning illustrate that point.
My notes on the recipe say that I made it in March of 2004, and that I thought it was good. Yet this morning, I made it, and I didn't like it. Two things were seriously wrong: first, dunking the risen pretzels in the baking soda-water mix tended to cause them to dissolve into mush -- in fact, one of them flattened right down. When baking, it somewhat resumed its shape, but not really. And second, none of them (I've just eaten two) were the kind of thick, chewy result you want from a soft pretzel.
So either I was greatly lucky three years ago, or I did something that I didn't do today (or the reverse), or my standards were looser (which I doubt). Whatever it was, I could not create pretzels that would make me say 'good', as I did then == and thats what I want to be able to do, consistently.
In passing: the 'Auntie Anne's Clone' pretzels were better. At least, this time around!
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