Pretzels and Popsicles!

It has been another lively week here in beautiful Colorado. We've had record high temperatures, and since it was finally deemed hot enough to need the air conditioning, I was permitted to turn it on. For those of you who know me well, I would have had it running full blast since the first time it cracked 75, but reasonable minds differ. I was looking forward to it all morning on Monday, and I turned it on, it pumped (unenthusiastically) cool air...for about 3 minutes. Then, it became clear something was wrong. By 8:00 pm, it was 87 degrees in the kitchen. Gross. We ate BLTs and the 10 minutes of standing over the bacon was misery. Fortunately, our landlord repaired it quickly the next day, and now I can carry on heating up the kitchen with good eats! Today, I tackled an unlikely recipe. I purchased yeast in one of those 3 pack strips, and noticed a recipe on the back for Bran Pretzels. I had recently had some wheat bran donated to me by someone who decided to go gluten-free (may I never be so unlucky). I was just convinced enough by the fact that the recipe claimed to have won a prize for "good fibes" (evidently a fiber-rich recipe contest) to go ahead and try it. Guess what? They are pretty good! I believe pretty much everything would be improved with a cheese dipping sauce, but even plain they were tasty!

Here's the recipe, with my commentary, of course.

Bran Pretzels

1 1/2 c. warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 envelope of dry yeast
1 1/2 c. wheat bran
1 1/4-1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 egg beaten (add about 1 Tbs. water to make easier to apply)
coarse salt, to taste (I used maybe 1/2 Tbs. total)

Place water in a large bowl, add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add bran  to yeast (stir a bit) and let stand 10 minutes.
Add 1 cup of all purpose flour, sugar, and salt. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed with an electric mixer* (see note below), scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in whole wheat flour, and add all-purpose flour 1/4 cup at a time until a soft dough forms. I added about 1/2 cup, and then added a bit more as I was kneading. Knead on lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
Punch dough down; turn out onto lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 13-inch rope, shape into pretzels. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush lightly with beaten egg; sprinkle with coarse salt, as desired.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake 15-20 minutes (mine were 18) or until browning on tops. Remove from sheet and cool on a wire rack.
*Notes: I will say that the beating for 2 minutes will seem excessive. Everything is totally incorporated after a few seconds. It will look like this:

Here's why you have to do it (and why you have to knead it well, too.) When you work with whole grains, like whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, rye flour, etc., they do not develop gluten the same way that more processed all-purpose flour does. That is, you must develop the gluten more by working the dough, by beating and kneading it. Gluten is the protein strands that make breads rise-think about the difference between a airy angel food cake and a dense rye bread. If you don't work the dough enough, the bread or cake will be tough and dense instead of light and chewy like traditional breads and cakes. It is worth effort to get those whole grains in there because they are good for you (so you can eat more, right?) Just bear in mind that it is a little more labor-intensive than when you work with white flours. I learned that on PBS ladies and gentlemen.
Also of note, gluten has gotten a bad rap of late because many people are experimenting with going gluten-free and they feel great. I'm highly skeptical of this because almost everyone I know who has done it ate total junk before, and now that they can't eat most bread or flour (bye-bye McDonalds and Taco Bell) or anything with gluten in it (i.e., tons of processed foods that have gluten added to thicken them), they feel great because they don't eat garbage anymore. That said, I know people who have celiac disease or have been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, too. I'm not knocking it if your doctor told you not to eat wheat, I'm just saying that I'm not giving up bread, and permitting a blanket demonizing of gluten, just because someone feels better not eating McDonalds anymore. That's my rant on gluten-free. I'll get off my soapbox now.
I also made something truly spectacular this week, and now I'm addicted to it. A few summers back, I found a recipe for Melon Sherbet, which was mostly cantaloupe and buttermilk combined to make ice cream. It's sublime. The other day, I was reading the best issue of Bon Appetit ever, and I saw a recipe for a strawberry lassi, which you can see here. A lassi is essentially a smoothie. I decided to mash together the best of both worlds by substituting melon for the strawberries. Then I took it up a notch by pouring this concoction into Popsicle molds. The smoothie is divine by itself, but the Popsicles are a nice light treat to satisfy the sweet tooth. I used watermelon because I couldn't find cantaloupe this week, but I am positive that cantaloupe would be as good, or a combo of melons would be tasty, too.

So, here's the recipe: 
Purée 1 1/2 cups halved hulled strawberries (or cubed watermelon to follow my lead), 2/3 cup ice, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a blender until smooth and frothy.
Makes 2 large smoothies, or pour into Popsicle molds and freeze until set. My molds make 8 small pops (I got the molds for $1.50 at Walmart), and there was about 3/4 c. of smoothie left.
If you have trouble finding coconut milk (check by the Asian foods section) try substituting almond milk or soy milk, or just regular milk.

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2013/06/strawberry-coconut-lassi#ixzz2W2kv88S2

I hope this finds you enjoying the heck out of the first bites of summer.