Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Onion Rye Pretzels and Vegan Fondue for Oktoberfest, October and pretty much anytime!

Yes I am well aware that Oktoberfest parties oft happen in September or early in October so don't bother pointing it out (thanks Sideshow Bob!).

I like a pretzel with a little pizzazz so here is the delicious
ONION RYE PRETZEL
which I am currently eating all six of right now personally.



you will need:
2 C. flour (+ some for rolling)
1 C. rye flour
2 Tbsp. potato or corn starch
1 envelope dry active yeast
2 Tbsp. olive oil
 2 tsp. brown sugar or molasses
1/2 C. chopped onion
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt (depends on your tastes, keep in mind you will be salting them)
1 1/4 C. warm water
optional: sprinkling of caraway seeds

and also
oil for brushing (or margarine or coconut oil)
salt for sprinkling (coarse is popular)
3 C. water
2 Tbsp. baking soda

Mix yeast, brown sugar, 2 Tbsp. oil and warm water and allow the yeast to activate, about 10 minutes. Add the flours, starch, onion, salt and onion powder. You can add caraway seeds if you like. Incorporate to make a workable dough, add more flour if necessary, and knead for a little under 10 minutes. Divide the dough into six equal parts and lightly grease them. Let them rise in a warm place for about an hour.
When about ready, boil 3 C. water and baking soda in a saucepan.
Grease a big baking sheet (might want to use parchment or a cooky pad, to keep the buggers from sticking) and preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Turn off the boiling water. Roll out the 6 dough balls into 6 ropes of 24" length on a floured board. Form into fabulous pretzel shapes of your choosing.
Soak each for about 30 seconds on both sides in the soda water (will probably need to do them one or two at a time). Shake a little water off gently if you can, place on baking sheet (you will probably need to re-pretzelfy the shape after abusing them so), brush with oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for about 10 minutes or until browned and delicious and serve hot/warm with the fondue.

For the fondue:

1 C. chopped potato
1/2 C. sauerkraut
1/4 C. cooked white beans
2 or 3 smashed garlic cloves
1/4 C. oil
salt to taste (a lot)
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional)
1 tsp. turnmeric
1/4 C. onion
wine (not sweet white) or beer (golden, brown or white and not overly hoppy or sour although a rye might actually be splendid with the pretzel) as needed
a little mustard won't kill ya

Begin by boiling the potato with water to cover. Cook until soft, mix with the other ingredients and puree until smooth, adding a little beer/wine at a time until it reaches a nice consistency. Season to taste and heat over low/med-low heat, adding liquid if need be, until mildly bubbling.
Usually there is a bit of potato water in there with the boiled potato and I use that in the initial puree, I also throw the onion and garlic in the pot toward the end of the boil, and I usually use more garlic than I tell you to because I really really love it. The starch in the potato and the beans will give it an interesting slightly stringy melty texture and  the sauerkraut and wine make it taste like something somewhere actually fermented. Bon apetit
You can add a little flour if you want but it really is not necessary.

2 comments:

Corrin Radd said...

We made these today and they're great.

Joshua Ploeg said...

thanks! Glad you enjoyed them
:)