Monday, August 30, 2010

Homemade soft pretzels & cinnamon-apple breakfast pizza

As usual, my two most recent cooking adventures were inspired by my never-ending quest to get keep my girls full for more than 30 minutes. I swear they have tapeworms! The other day, they each ate scrambled eggs, two slabs of bacon, half a bagel, and a bowl of fruit for breakfast, and they still claimed they were starving about 45 minutes later. Sigh.

I came up with the idea for breakfast pizza when I was standing in front of my open fridge, a perplexed look on my face, wondering what to do with the pathetic contents of the shelves (which happened to include a few apples and some whole wheat flatbread). I am constantly trying to think up inventive breakfasts that the girls will actually eat, especially now that Sydney has started preschool and can't snack all morning long like she sometimes does at home.

To make the "pizza," I cored, peeled and sliced the apples, then cooked them in a saute pan over low heat, using Earth's Balance Buttery Spread (non-dairy butter alternative). I added a little brown sugar and some cinnamon. Then, when the apples were soft, I threw in some quick-cooking oats and water (I based the measurements on the oat package). Then I cooked the apples and oats for about 5 more minutes, or until the oats were soft.

I spread the apple/oat concoction onto some flatbread, which had been lightly brushed with the Earth's Best Buttery Spread. Then I stuck it into the oven at 350 until the flatbread was crisp.



Verdict: My girls ate it all up and declared it "yummy." Personally, I thought the flatbread was a little dry. If I did it over again, I would probably use actual whole wheat pizza dough instead of the flatbread.

Now onto the soft pretzels. I can't take credit for these - I used Alton Brown's recipe, simply because it was the first one that popped up when I googled "homemade soft pretzels." I don't know why I felt inspired to make soft pretzels. I guess I was thinking it would be a fun "mommy and me" cooking activity with the girls. But, as those things usually go, I basically did everything myself while yelling at the girls not to get raw dough stuck in the carpet.

I followed Alton's recipe exactly, and the pretzels turned out pretty well. They weren't quite as chewy as I like, but I am convinced that has to do with the tap water in Arizona rather than my baking skills. Seriously - I saw a show on the Food Network that explained the reason NY bagels and pizza are so good is because the New York tap water gives the bread that chewy-yet-crisp texture. So that's my excuse from now on when I fail to make amazing bread products.

If I make soft pretzels again, I may try a whole wheat version to make it a little healthier. Or I could really get creative and combine my two endeavors to create apple cinnamon whole wheat breakfast pretzels!

9 comments:

  1. Every time I read your posts, it makes me hungry. I totally want to make those pretzels now.

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  2. these look amazing!! i'm so impressed you made pretzels. from scratch! want to come make some for me? i hear we have pretty good water in georgia. :)

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  3. Love the breakfast pizza idea! Your pretzels look amazing, too! I kinda want to eat one. NOW!

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  4. I wanna send my kids to your house for breakfast!! :) And I am so gonna make those pretzels some day... yummo!!

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  5. I wish I could have messenger-ed pretzels to you guys. I was kind of bummed that I had all these "hot out of the oven" pretzels and no one to share them with besides the girls. They're OK reheated, but never as good as when they're fresh!

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  6. I don't live that far... feel free to call on me anytime you have a food experiment that goes well!! :)

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  7. Thanks for a great sounding breakfast recipe, think my guys will love this as a new alternative.

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  8. Both recipes sound great and I am amazed that you made soft pretzels. On the oatmeal note, I made Mike baked oatmeal w/blueberries which he loves. It does require milk, but I'm sure if you used a substitute it would work. I freeze the portions so it is available to him when he wants.

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  9. Both the breakfast pizza and the pretzels look awesome! Going to have to put them both on my "to try" list. Great pictures of both, as well.

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