As you know, we often challenge Holly to make vegan recipes. This time, Holly has challenged us to make one of her favourite American sweet treats - a cinnamon sugar pretzel - using vegan ingredients. She provided us with this recipe and we adapted it to our vegan requirements. Let's just say, the results were fantastic! A word of warning folks ... don't use boiling water for your bicarb bath - James still has blisters!
Ingredients 1 cup warm almond milk
1 level tsp yeast
1/8 cup light brown sugar
2 heaped tbsp flora buttery or stork, melted
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1 heaped tbsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Method
1. Have a warm place ready to prove the dough - for us, we preheat the oven and turn it off and it seems to work. You'll need to do this straightaway.
2. In a ceramic mixing bowl, whisk together the almond milk and the yeast - depending on the type of yeast you're using, it should froth/ bubble.
3. Once it has frothed, tip in the light brown sugar, melted butter, salt and 1/2 cup flour. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined.
4. Add in the rest of the flour gradually; you will want a slightly sticky dough. Cover the bowl with a towel or cling film and put it in a warm place for an hour to rise.
5. After an hour, heat your oven to 230 degrees Celsius and retrieve your dough. Knead the dough for one minute and divide into six equal pieces. Here's the tricky part: roll each one into a long skinny rope and mould into a pretzel shape.
6. In a bowl, mix together the warm water and the bicarbonate of soda to make a bicarb bath. Carefully dip each pretzel in the mixture, this will help it to brown on the outside and become slightly chewy. Place onto a prepared baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes, so that the outsides are golden brown.
7. Meanwhile, melt the second quantity of butter; once your pretzels are out of the own (and have cooled) brush them with the melted butter and dip into a bowl of combined cinnamon and sugar. Et voila! A perfect soft cinnamon sugar pretzel - and it's vegan!