pretzel


Homemade baked pretzels
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Party with Homemade Pretzels!

Homemade Baked Pretzels with Cheese SauceThe best part about football is the FOOD. Don’t get me wrong, I like watching the game as much as the next person (possibly even more, when the Seahawks are playing) but the snacks at tailgates, stadiums, and watch parties are the most exciting part besides the event itself. Every year I like to challenge myself to make new and exhilarating Super Bowl snacks for everyone to enjoy, and this year is no different. Of course, the football cooking extravaganza has been going on all month… and last week it was all about the pretzel.

Pretzels are always good, but pretzels with cheese sauce are better. Last weekend my lovely friend Holly had the brilliant idea to make our own pretzels (yes, with cheese sauce!) so for the first time in my life, I learned how to make homemade pretzels! It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, especially because we followed Alton Brown’s pretzel guide, which of course was hella thorough. The finished pretzels were so, so good. I definitely recommend serving them warm and don’t skimp on the salt! Mmm… salt. Perfect paired with a frosty beer during the game.

If for some reason you don’t want to make the cheese sauce included in this recipe (why not though?!) I recommend serving with dijon mustard or spicy mustard.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

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Top 5 Trendiest Easter Recipes on Pinterest

You know what they say… “April showers bring May flowers, and early March food blogging brings late March Easter Pinboards.” Okay, well maybe they only say the first half of that, but the latter half is definitely true, so let’s just roll with it. These days, you can’t even have a third-tier holiday like Arbor Day without a million Pinterest boards popping up, so you can only imagine how big of a deal such a high-profile holiday like Easter is. Clearly we had to get our Peep-loving selves in on the action as well.

Presenting… the Top 5 Trendiest Easter Recipes on Pinterest.

Cadbury Creme Egg Milkshake

5. Cadbury Creme Egg Milkshake from Chocolate Moosey
Milk chocolate eggs stuffed with frosting are amazing enough as it is, but incorporate them into a chocolate ice cream milkshake – complete with homemade fondant! – and you’ve got a real winner.

Easter Peanut Butter Buttons

4. Easter Peanut Butter Buttons from The Curvy Carrot
Probably one of the easiest things ever. Peanut butter filled pretzels are a classic, and so are white chocolate covered pretzels. Adhere a Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg to a pretzel with melted white chocolate, and you’re in Easter snack heaven.

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Top 5 Halloween Pinterest Recipes

Finally, Halloween is here! We’ve spent weeks dreaming about candy, cocktails, and all sorts of festive party snacks, but you know how it goes… the day hits and you realize you’re one recipe short, or you get invited to a last-minute shindig… never fear, we’ve got you covered. ES has been compiling the best, weirdest, and funniest Halloween ideas on our Endless Halloween Pinboard. Here are the top five most repinned discoveries we’ve posted (not counting our own amazing ideas and creations, which you can find collected here!).

5. Halloween Candy Bark
From Annie’s Eats

Butterfingers, Reeses Cups, M&Ms, honey-roasted peanuts, and toffee candy paired with both bittersweet and white chocolate? Sounds like a recipe for a massive amount of cavities… and a massive amount of Halloween happiness. Also good for post-Halloween when you need to use up all that leftover trick-or-treat candy.

4. White Chocolate Bones
From Inspire Co. / Spoonful

Here’s one that’s perfect for all the last-minute lazybones. (Get it? Sorry.) With only three ingredients, these bones manage to be sweet, salty, crunchy, and pretty cool looking.

3. Pretzel Spiderwebs
From Mom Endeavors

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Put Some Salt on It

I’m a sugar cone guy. Always have been. Wafer cones have less personality than Mitt Romney’s dog, and waffle cones…they’re just trying to hard.

Until recently, I had no idea there was a fourth option. (Only me? Did you guys know about this all along and just weren’t telling me for some reason?) Anyways—stopping at Steve’s Ice Cream on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk on one of these delightfully hot summer days we’ve been having, I was caught off guard by the question, “sugar cone or pretzel cone?”

Instinctively, I answered “sugar.” But then I reconsidered when I saw the thick, sturdy pretzel cones. Why the hell not? I went with pretzel, and hell yeah, I am glad I did. It’s not even so much that the cone is delicious—it is tasty—it’s that with each cone-centric lick of my vanilla bourbon ice cream, I got a sprinkle of salt on my tongue as well. Perfection.

Pretzels: good with beer, good with ice cream. What’s not to love?

Sorry, sugar cone. Your days are numbered.

(Photo: Kurdy S.)

 

in Desserts / Rants & Raves 2 comments
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The Endless Road Trip: Philadelphia’s Top 10 Eats 5. Pretzels, Pretzels Everywhere

New York can have its bagels, Chicago its hot dogs, LA its churros and  I will even spot NOLA its delectable beignets. For me, Philly’s signature on-the-go edible blows them all out of the water. I’m not talking about cheesesteaks or even wudder ice, but pretzels.  You can find Philly soft pretzels on just about every corner in the city and everyone has their favorite place to pick them up. The city even has a park named after the doughy treats!

Like any signature city snack, there’s significant debate about which variety is the very best. There are a few different styles you can find, so here’s a crash course for next time you’re in town.

1. Philly Soft Pretzel

This is the traditional version. A slab of pretzels shaped in figure 8s, baked and sold in multiples of twos. Fresh, soft and chewy, there is just the right amount of coarse salt. Walk on by the ones that look moist, as they have been sitting around too long, but just try to resist a batch of these fresh out of the oven. All these beauties need is a squirt of yellow mustard (forget about Grey Poupon). To this day, I am convinced these pretzels actually taste better when they are bought and then wrapped in a brown paper bag, which many mom-and-pop shops provide.

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