Have you ever made a pretzel recipe with no yeast?
We have at our house, thanks to 4-H. Youngest daughter’s foods project called for making biscuits or pretzels for the fair. Since I’ve never felt that any biscuits I’ve made are too fair-worthy, I wasn’t confident that I could help one of the kids achieve greatness there. So, we tried pretzels.
My daughter made several recipes, and we liked them. But then, a few weeks before the fair, I noticed that the fine print called for pretzels with no yeast. Really? Don’t soft pretzels have to contain yeast? It’s little things like this that make 4-H so maddening. You really have to be a detail person to do it right, but I was up for the challenge.
My daughter ended up trying three different no-yeast pretzel recipes. Some were fine, others were not so great. In the end, we combined the 4-H book recipe with a yeast pretzel recipe we had enjoyed.
The result was yummy, and she earned a blue honor class on them. The judge enjoyed that they were different from the typical pretzel.
Here’s our pretzel recipe with no yeast, in case you’d like to try it.
Apple Pie No Yeast Pretzels
1 1/2 cups flour (if you want to use wheat flour, I’d use 1 cup white flour and 1/2 cup wheat)
2/3 cups milk
2 T oil
2 t baking powder
1 t sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
2 t cinnamon
1 cup diced dried apple pieces (we cut up one apple into tiny pieces and let them dry for a couple of days)
In bowl, mix flour, milk oil, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Mix until dough is soft. Put dough onto floured surface.
Divide dough in half to make 2 balls. Roll each ball 3-4 times.
Knead each ball of dough 10 times, working cinnamon and apple pieces into dough. Turn a bowl over the balls for 15 minutes.
Divide each ball into 8 balls. Form each into a rope and then a pretzel.
On stove top, fill a kettle with a few inches of water and add 1/4 cup baking soda. Bring to a boil. Drop each pretzel into the boiling water for 30 seconds, turning after 15 seconds.
Place pretzels onto parchment-lined baking sheet and brush with egg (beat the egg in a small bowl).
Bake for 11 minutes at 425.
A note about putting the pretzels into the boiling baking soda water: we discovered this during our yeast pretzel baking. Those that we didn’t dip in the baking soda water were white and not so pretty. At first, one recipe recommended dipping them for 2 minutes. Bad idea! They puffed up so much that they were just blobs. Thirty seconds seemed to work great at puffing up the pretzels and browning them just the right amount.
Any pretzel tips, especially for recipes with no yeast? Any 4-H pretzel tales? Share them in the comments!
Girls in White Dresses 
To the victor belong the spoils! You are right – 4-H can be downright maddening BUT so much good comes out of it. I pity the 4-Her who does not have a caring parent to help them over the bumps. Think back over your years in 4-H. You learned SO much! You also learn how to cope with rejection on something you thought was kinda wonderful, but the judge saw it differently. It’s SO subjective!
That sounds like a very interesting project. I am so glad that you got such good results and that your daughter got a blue ribbon! It made all the hard work worthwhile. I have never made a pretzel and have eaten very few soft ones. But have enjoyed the ones I’ve had!!
It’s a good thing Daughter #3 has a mother who is interested in helping her. Imagine a child trying to do this on his/her own without the help and encouragement of a parent!