Avocado Soft Pretzels from Scratch

I’m so glad that I dragged myself out of bed this morning to make these avocado soft pretzels.

You might remember that I recently made risotto with avocado cream. Why the sudden influx of avocado recipes? At Whole Foods the other day they had those bags of four avocados for $5, but I noticed there was a bag near the bottom that had six avocados in it. Was it a mistake? I’ll never know, but I carefully pulled it Jenga-style out of the display and never looked back. 🙂

The avocado puree in these soft pretzels makes them ridiculous fluffy and delicious. I did use a bit of all-purpose flour in these because I didn’t want to take any chances on the fluffiness thing, but now that I’ve made them, I think they could stand up to being entirely whole wheat – maybe next time I’ll use all whole wheat pastry flour. There will definitely be a next time.

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You could totally feed these to someone as a vegetable sneak attack, as they don’t take on much of a green color once cooked and the avocado taste is barely detectable in the finish product. The dough will look green while you’re working with it, though, which was kinda fun =].

The ridges that you see around the pretzel occur when pockets of air form in the dough.

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Avocado Soft Pretzels

Makes about 10 soft pretzels. Inspired from this recipe on Oh Ladycakes.

1/4 c. plain, unsweetened nondairy milk
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tb maple syrup

3/4 c. water
2 medium avocados, pitted and skinned, roughly chopped
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 c. AP flour + more for kneading

5 tb baking soda
5 c. water
canola oil
coarse salt

Warm the nondairy milk to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It should feel warm or even hot if you stick your finger in it, but not so hot that you need to take your finger out. Stir the milk gently together with the yeast and maple syrup in a small bowl and set aside for at least 10 minutes, or until foamy.

Puree the chopped avocado (along with some of the water if needed to help it along) in a blender or food processor. It’s OK if there are few small chunks left. Add the avocado puree along with the rest of the 3/4 cup of water into a mixing bowl and add the yeast mixture, whole wheat flour, salt, and first cup of AP flour. Stir together with wooden spoon until a lumpy dough starts to form. Use your hands to press the mixture together, and transfer it onto a lightly fl0ured surface.

Knead for at least 5 minutes, adding as little additional AP flour as you can get away with. It’s done when the dough has visible strands of gluten and a smooth appearance. The dough will feel somewhat tacky. Shape it into a bowl and put it into a lightly greased bowl; also very lightly grease the top of the dough that’s exposed to the air. Cover with a lightly dampened towel or paper towel and place somewhere warm for about 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.

In a small saucepan, bring the water and baking soda to a boil. Meanwhile, pull off pieces of dough a bit bigger than a golf ball. In reality it doesn’t matter that much what size you make the pretzels, you might just have to bake them a bit longer. Roll them between your palms to make them long and then shape them into a pretzel shape (as you can see from the pictures I did this both with and without the twist in the middle). Have a baking sheet ready – line it with parchment paper & then lightly grease the parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Put each pretzel in the boiling baking soda bath for about 15 seconds – I did up to 3 pretzels at the same time. Using a slotted spoon, remove them and put them onto the baking sheet. Once you’ve bathed all of the pretzels turn off the water. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together equal parts canola oil and water until emulsified. Brush the mixture onto the tops of the pretzels using a pastry brush or gently with your hand. Sprinkle coarse salt over the tops of the pretzels and bake. They’re done after about 12 minutes, or when the tops are browned.

The pretzels don’t get any better than right after they come out of the oven, but will still be good for another day or two if stored covered at room temperature.

Submitted to Yeastspotting.

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