Homemade Soft Pretzels

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Recipe:

• 4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 packet of fast active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups of luke warm water (85 degrees)
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 1 egg (egg wash)

Toppings are optional.

Preheat oven at 350.


Step 1: 

Mix together the luke warm water and the yeast. Stir until the yeast is completely dissolved.

Tip: If you want to help speed up the process add half of the sugar now to feed the yeast.

Let this mixture sit for one hour.

Step 2:

Once your yeast has doubled now you can add the rest of the sugar, salt, and flour.

You want to add your flour slowly and as the dough forms you may have to begin using your hands.

Step 3:

Once all your flour is added it is time to knead the dough! You will need to do this for 5 to 10 minutes by hand or until dough is smooth.

Add flour as needed so that it doesnt stick to the surface or your hands.

Step 4: 

When your dough is nice and smooth roll it out into a rectangle. You will want to be able to cut 20 slices that are about 4 inches long.

Step 5:

When you have all your slices cut then you will need to roll each one until it reaches about 6 to 8 inches.

Step 6: 

Now you want to twist your rolled strips into the pretzel shape and place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Allow room for growth in the oven.


Step 7: 

Once all the pretzels are twisted you will want to take your egg wash and brush the pretzels all over. This will give them the golden brown outside. This is also where you want to add your toppings.

Step 8: 

After all have the egg wash and toppings you now want to place your pretzels in the oven. They need to cook at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes. Or until golden brown on top.

Step 9: 

Let pretzels cool and enjoy!



Additional tips: The pretzels are good for 2 days if kept in an airtight container. If you have any left at that point then place them in the freezer and take them out as needed.

Pittsburgh Backyard Farmings Weekly Update 6/4/14

Pittsburgh Backyard Farmings

Weekly Update 6/4/13

May has come and gone and we've coasted right into June! Strawberry season is in full swing here at PBF! We've been picking berries daily and sometimes twice a day!

News around our backyard farm:

• We have a bunch of new blog posts almost ready to be published!

• We finally got around to redoing the front flower bed as a mothers day gift!

• If you guys haven't checked out these pages you have to!

• Churchview Farms  
• Uptown Mt. Lebanon Farmers Market
• Preppers and Survivalists: Impending Apocalypse
• Chapons Greenhouse
• SOUTH WESTERN PA POULTRY

• We attempted to make homemade butter, noddles, bread, and strawberry pie! All turned out good and we will have blog posts soon!

• We made the paper again! Mr. Brown needs to get over the fact that more and more families are doing the backyard chicken thing! It's a popular upcoming hobby! Even though he grew up on a "farm" doesn't mean he knows ALL about backyard small scale chicken keeping!!! 

• Chicken limit for Pleasant Hills

• We want to hear from you guys! What do you want to see? Let us know by sending a message or comment below!

 Hen of the Week
Summer

What's Going On In Our Garden

Rain barrel has mint, cilantro, and nasturtium going strong

Potato box and buckets are looking good!

Green buckets for the hens!

Mustard Plant???

Flowers from the "mustard" plant

Tomatoes have almost doubled in size!

Sweet Potatoes are growing nicely!

Cantaloupe is starting to take off

Blueberries are almost closed up

We were finally able to take the guard fence away from sunflowers!

Potatoes almost waste high

Potato flower

Backside of  our potato patch

Garlic

Broccoli 

Snap peas are growing kinda slow

Our transplanted cucumbers are doing great

Corn is growing fast! You can see the later planted ones on the left

Herb bed is doing good!

Kale and Dill seem to get bigger overnight

Hanging Basket

Black Raspberries

Formed berries

Potato Towers

The Dots!

Nasturtium  

Mothers day project

 Peonies 

Our homemade butter

Fodder spending the day outside

Day 5 Wheat

Close up of some wheat

Meder's had really nice eucalyptus plants... We came home with one of course!!!

Ashley made a "Fresh Eggs' sign out of an old pallet!

That's the weekly update!
Thank you for stopping by! 

Keep an eye out for a blog post later this week!

Homemade Strawberry Pie

Strawberry Pie

The PBF Way

With strawberry season starting off we thought we would try something new this year and made our first homemade strawberry pie. Everything in the pie was made from scratch except for the crust. The next tie we make the pie we will probably make our own crust! 

Recipe for pie:

• 4-5 cups of strawberries
• Strawberry Glaze
• Pie crust
• Whip Cream

Recipe for Strawberry Glaze:

• 1 3/4 cups of water
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of corn starch
• 1/4 cup of strawberry jello powder (optional-used for coloring)

Recipe for Whip Cream:

• 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
• 7-8 tablespoons of powered sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Making the Pie:

First we picked all the ripe strawberries that we had in the patch this morning. After they were all picked we washed them and cut off all tops.

Secondly we made the strawberry glaze for the pie filling which consisted of water, sugar, corn starch, and strawberry jello powder.

Steps to make glaze and filling:

1. Mix water, sugar, and corn starch in a larger sauce pan and bring to a boil.

2. Once the mixture is at boiling point, mix in the strawberries you cut up earlier and reduce heat to low. Allow this to simmer for 8-10 minutes.

3. After 8-10 minutes remove the pan from the heat and now add in your strawberry jello powder.  You don't need to add a lot just enough to give the glaze a red color. 

4. Now allow your strawberries and glaze to cool and set. This took about an hour in the fridge until our crust was done and cool.

Once your filling is made now is a good time to bake your pie crust in the oven. Ours took 10-15 minutes and then we let it cool for an hour. Both the crust and filling need to be cool before you put the filling into the pie crust. 

Once everything was cool we put the filling in the crust and put the pie back in the fridge to completely set and we were ready to serve it.

Steps for making homemade Whip Cream:

1. Pour 2 cups of heavy whipping cream into a metal bowl and whisk until the cream is almost stiff.

2. Next add in your powered sugar and vanilla.

3. Mix your mixture until the whip cream can hold its peak, once you reach this point it is ready to go in the fridge until your ready to serve your pie.

 Now that everything is made you can either put a layer of whip cream on the pie or you can wait and just scoop it onto the pie when you are serving it.

ENJOY!