Vegan Bavarian Pretzel Rolls! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vegan Bavarian Pretzel Rolls will AMAZE your family and friends, and try, if you can, not to gorge yourself on all 45.....  

This entry is dedicated to Nikki! I love you so much sister!

These look like a lot of work, but they're not that bad. Read the recipe through to make sure you know what you're doing, and you should be fine. Enjoy!


First things first:


You will need a large cutting board for kneading the dough (though you can flour your kitchen table if needed!) and the biggest bowl you've got in your kitchen arsenal for mixing and storing the dough. It wouldn't hurt to buy an extra extra-large bowl, but you can clean the same one out while the dough is resting, if needed.


The dough can be made a day in advance, though the rolls will taste best superphresh. Your call.


Clear out a space in your fridge for yo' bowl.
I use a 2 cup liquid measuring cup for the water, melting the margarine, and warming the milk. But if you prefer to do more dishes than less, do whatever you want.
Prepare your floured surface while yeast is foaming.
Make sure you have extra flour handy in case the dough isn't stiff enough, plus you'll want extra for dusting the surface on which you will be kneading your dough.


For the dough:


7 1/2 t active dry yeast
1 c + 2 c warm water
1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c (one stick) margarine
1/2 c almond or soy milk  (I used sweetened and they turned out fine, so don't freak if that's all you have lying around, it'll do just fine)
11 + c all-purpose flour


To boil:


1/2 c baking soda
big ol' heavy-bottomed pasta pot
baking sheets
baking/cooking spray
slotted spoon




Here is the recipe as I know it, which will make 45+ rolls. The original recipe is 1/3 of this one (and will make around a dozen or so). Cut it in half or in thirds as you wish. You do the math though, I'm waaaaaaaaaay too lazy.


In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of pretty warm (but not too hot, or you'll kill the yeast) water, and let sit until foamy. 


When foamy, add 1 cup of packed light brown sugar.


While that's sitting, in your liquid measuring cup, melt margarine in the microwave (careful, it may explode, so turn the power level down to medium, and nuke for around 45 seconds or so). Add milk, and return to the microwave for another 20 seconds to warm.


Add the milk-margarine mixture to bowl, add 2 more cups of warm water (you'll notice that the measuring cup is almost clean--you're welcome!) and stir with wooden spoon.




I make these rolls every day in my restaurant, so I'm at the point where I eyeball everything but the yeast.. You're going to add something like 12 cups of flour. I would say, measure the flour into a separate bowl, and add 85% of it, stirring with a wooden spoon until you can stir no more, adding flour until the dough is a shaggy mass. (If you're using a mixer, using dough hook at low speed, mix dough and add sprinkles of flour until ball clears the sides of the bowl.)


Turn it to your floured surface and keep kneading and adding sprinkles of flour until it's a smooth, around 4-6 minutes (around 3 or so with a dough hook and mixer). If it's a tad sticky, don't worry, it's fine.


Cover the dough with a clean, dry dishtowel or piece of wax paper and let it rest for 10 minutes. While it's resting, clean out the large bowl you just made the dough in or get another extra-large bowl, and oil and flour it (just spray all over the inside, add a few tablespoons of flour, and turn until the bowl is floured. I tap the leftover flour right on top of my dough ball). After the 10 minutes, put dough in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in refrigerator until doubled in size, approx. 45 minutes.


I just let it hang out there until I need it, and what's cool is that if you don't need the 'fridge space, you can leave the dough in there for at least a day, punching it down when it starts getting sassy. Oh, and!!! if you wanted, you could make only part of the dough, and the dough will make more dough! Which is how you can get more than 45 rolls out of one batch! BREAD CAN BE SO BEAUTIFUL!




Alright, when you're ready, preheat your oven to 400 and get out your big pasta pot. Fill it three-quarters of the way full of water and set to boil. Add ~1/2 cup - 1cup of baking soda, but be warned: adding baking soda to boiling water may cause bubbling over and scalding and probably DEATH. If you add the soda right away you can avoid this. 


While oven and water are gettin' steamy, remove your dough from the refrigerator. Spray a baking sheet or three and form balls with the dough, grabbing golfball-sized pieces from the big ol' dough pile, pinching out air pockets and rolling them in your hands (crucial to giving rolls those lovely pretzel-y cracks!), and put 'em on the baking sheet, doing so until you have as many as you need. Though after you've tasted them, you will discover that you can never have enough...!




So! We're going to take our baking sheet right next to our pot of water, slotted spoon handy. Carefully drop 3-6 pieces of dough in the water and let them boil, turning once, for around 20-30 seconds (be warned: they do get soggy and gross, so stay focused!). My rolls tend to stick on me, so I make sure to spray a little more oil onto the pan while the rolls are in the water. Remove from water and repeat with remaining dough. When they're all done, sprinkle the glorious top of each with a pinch kosher salt or sea salt. (Note: I noticed that when you use kosher salt, the salt tends to dissolve into the roll, so the next day they just kind of taste like good bread. Using larger-crystals of salt might make their pretzeleyness last longer, though I don't expect they'll last long anyway.)


Bake each sheet for 12-15 minutes, rotating pan halfway. Let cool for as long as you can stand to not eat them, and serve warm. If sticking to pan, use a metal spatula to pry from pan. Freeze extras, which can be reheated at 350 degrees until warm, checking after 5 minutes. If they lose their salty tops after being frozen or over the next couple days, you can brush a little melted margarine on top and add a pinch more salt before you warm them in the oven. Enjoy! Long live cruelty-free cooking! Er, baking!

Update!
 For 12-15 rolls, here are your measurements (I couldn't find the original recipe, but I finally found my copy, so...)

1 1/3 c warm water
2 T warm milk
2 1/2 t active dry yeast
1/3 c light brown sugar
2 T melted margarine
4 c a-p flour

for boiling:
2 qt cold water
1/2 c baking soda 


Huzzah!