Buckwheat Pretzels

Tunes: Kerli – Love Is Dead

I made these a few days ago.  These are a work in progress…

Makes 16

2½ TBSP finely ground flaxseed

3 TBSP hot water

Safflower oil

1 cup buckwheat flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

2/3 cup almond milk

2 TBSP Earth Balance olive oil buttery spread

½ tsp date sugar

½ tsp salt

Sea salt

1.  Combine ground flaxseed and hot water into a blender and blend until frothy.  Let sit while preparing pretzels.

2.  Heat oven to 400°F.  Grease 2 cookie sheets with safflower oil.

3.  In a bowl, combine the flours, milk, Earth Balance, date sugar and salt using a fork.  Lightly flour a work surface with whole wheat pastry flour and transfer dough to surface.  Gently smooth dough into a ball; knead ten times.

4.  Divide the dough in half.  Roll one half into an even 8-inch log and cut into 8 pieces.  Roll each of the 8 pieces gently into thin 12-inch-long strip.  Twist each strip into a pretzel shape and place, seam side down, on prepared cookie sheet.

5.  Add extra hot water to the ground flaxseeds, if necessary, and whisk with fork to thin out.  Brush each pretzel with flaxseed mix and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until pretzels are golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheet onto wire rack.

6.  Repeat with other half of dough.

It was a bit of a challenge to make the pretzel shape, lol.  I figure I’ll get the hang of it as I continue to make more.

*I think I would try this recipes again adding more date sugar or maybe another sweetener.

*Next time I may also try replacing the Earth Balance with crunchy peanut butter… Crazy Richard’s is a good one :)

*I would also try baking them a bit longer to make them crunchier.  I made them a few days ago and popped one in the toaster oven today and it was crunchier and I kind of liked it that way.

*You could probably just use water instead of the flaxseed mixed with water.

*I may also try to make less of them next time so I can make them bigger.