Dining with the Bloggers - November 2nd.

One treat leads to another - I just HAD to do one more thing with yeast for Dining with the Bloggers this week!

Who would become my victim? There are so many accomplished bakers out there, that really, it's only a matter of picking one. But if you find someone who does MAGNIFICENT cakes and muffins and cupcakes in just the category you like (that would be homey and comfy and lovely looking!) which is also the category in which you would like to classify your own baking - you just KNOW you found the right person and the right blog. That is: Lori from dessertfirst.

Lori is a food writer from Manila, Philipines. Not just a food-blogger, but a food writer. Scared yet? No, and really, you shouldn't be. Not even though she just ran her first 10 kilometer run. I mean, she's human - she bakes! And each and every one of her homebaked entries I could just lick off the screen. Seriously. Lori has a seperate page on her blog for recipes, and a word of warning: if you're just remotely sweet treat-hungry, do NOT check it out. Your keyboard will be ruined before you have a chance of catching the saliva.

So why go for the little, somewhat anonymous recipe for Pretzels. Because I'd never tried eating Pretzels before. I've heard of them, but I never tried them. And Lori's just looked SO good. Her suggestion of dipping them in melted butter and cinnamon-sugar made it clear to me that they really had to be tasted and tested. Butter? Sugar? I'm there.

Pretzels themselves are simple to do, except of course for the assembly - Lori's instructions are actually pretty clear, but I'd just scribbled the recipe down, with instructions somewhat like: shape into pretzels. There's a little more technique to it than that, but really, as long as the taste is good, who cares about their appearence?

As always, I substituted the dry yeast for fresh (about 12 grams) and well - my kitchen isn't exactly as hot as Lori's, so the dough rested and rose for a little longer - that's just how it is with those yeast-beasts. Fortunately, they were all done and ready for when my Mom arrived for tea, and with the little bowls of melted butter and cinnamon sugar set out, there was no stopping us. Bready and salty, combined with a dip (and a double-dip!) of butter and sugar. Yummo!



Cathy's done the most awesome looking thing this week - go have a look!