Jalapeno Pretzels

Difficulty: Medium

Makes 12

A while back I whipped up some herb and garlic pretzels that were some of the tastiest morsels in existence. I was feeling pretzy again so decided to spice things up this time around with some jalapenos and Cheezly. BOOM! Another delicious snack-treat was born. Now I don’t want to make some outlandish remarks here saying I’m some kind of pretzel legend, no wait, I do. Make them, you’ll understand.

Ingredients

• 7 grams dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/3 cup, roughly chopped jalapenos
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 3 cups plain flour
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/3 cup roughly grated Cheezly
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons bi-carb soda
• 2 tablespoons Nuttelex
• Coarse sea salt

Method

1. In a large bowl, combine the yeast, brown sugar and salt before adding the first lot of warm water.
2. Once the yeast has dissolved, add the nutritional yeast, jalapenos, garlic and onion powders before sifting in the flours.
3. Knead on a floured surface until a nice smooth dough is formed and shape into a ball.
4. Spray another large bowl with olive oil and roll the ball around in it before covering and allowing it to rise for an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 230°C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
6. Separate the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll out to be about the thickness of your index finger and about 30cm in length.
7. Twist into a pretzel shape by bringing the two ends together, twisting in the middle. Then cross the two ends over and press into the bottom of the shape. If you can’t manage this, just make them in any shape you want!
8. Mix the remaining water and bi-card soda in a shallow dish. Gently dip each pretzel into the solution before placing on a baking tray.
9. Leave the pretzels to rise on the tray for 10 minutes and sprinkle with Cheezly before baking for 10 minutes.
10. Remove the pretzels from the oven and melt the Nuttelex.
11. Brush the Nuttelex over each pretzel and sprinkle with sea salt.
12. Best served warm!