Welcome to Jennifer Beckstrand's Amish Recipe Series
Welcome everyone. I am starting a new series on The After Work Cook blog and I think all of you are going to be excited also. Jennifer Beckstrand has agreed to share her Honey recipes from some of her Amish books. Here is a little about Jennifer:
Jennifer Beckstrand is the award winning Amish romance author of The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series and The Honeybee Sisters series for Kensington Books. Huckleberry Summer was nominated for the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award and the 2015 RITA® Award, and Huckleberry Hill won the 2014 LIME Award for Inspirational fiction. Both Huckleberry Hill and Huckleberry Christmas appeared in Examiner.com list of top ten inspirational books for 2014. Her much-anticipated Amish series, The Honeybee Sisters, was released summer of 2016 and has created a lot of romantic buzz. Sweet as Honey received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and Sweet as Honey and A Bee in her Bonnet were both awarded Top Picks from RT Book Reviews. Jennifer has always been drawn to the strong faith and the enduring family ties of the Plain people and loves writing about the antics of Anna and Felty Helmuth and the Honeybee sisters’ aendi Bitsy. Jennifer has a degree in mathematics and a passion for Jane Austen and Shakespeare. She and her husband have been married for thirty-two years, and she has four daughters, two sons, and four adorable grandchildren, whom she spoils rotten.
Honey Glazed Pretzels
Dough:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 ¼ teaspoons Saf instant yeast
1 cup warm water
Topping:
½ cup warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
Coarse salt (optional)
2 tablespoons each butter and honey melted together, or 3 tablespoons butter, melted.
Mix the water, honey and yeast in a large bowl or mixer. Wait 5 minutes for the yeast to bloom. Add salt and 2 cups flour and mix until smooth. Add ¼ cup more flour at a time and knead until dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl. Turn on to a work surface and continue to knead the dough for about 5 minutes, until it is soft and smooth. The dough shouldn’t be sticky but shouldn’t be tough either. Spray a plastic bag with cooking spray and place the dough inside the bag and seal. Let rise 30-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 500°F. (Yes! 500°) and line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and let rest for about 5 minutes. Combine baking soda and very warm water and place in a shallow bowl and stir until dissolved. Roll the dough into long ropes, about 12” long and twist into the shape of a pretzel. Dip in water and baking soda. (You will have to stir the water/soda mixture each time to keep it from separating.) Place on the baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt or coarse salt. Let rise for 10 minutes.
Bake the pretzels for 7 to 9 minutes or until they’re golden brown. While baking, melt the honey and butter together if desired.
Remove the pretzels from the oven and brush or drizzle with the honey butter or with butter. Best when eaten warm!
Makes 8 pretzels.
Thanks for sharing, Jennifer, wow I'm going to have to try these. As I'm watching calories I'm going to have to log the recipe into my Fitness Pal to check how many I need to count. LOL
Blurb
Lily, Poppy, and Rose Christner, known as the Honeybee Sisters in their Amish community, are smart, inseparable, and all grown up. Orphaned when they were very young, the girls were raised by their eccentric Aunt Bitsy, who doesn’t behave like a proper Amish spinster. The Honeybee Sisters have blossomed into rare beauties, and the boys in the community have begun to take notice. But Aunt Bitsy is determined to scare off all comers with her brusque manner and her handy shotgun. None but the most worthy will make it past Bitsy’s defenses. It’s going to be a rowdy and romantic summer—harvesting honey from their many beehives and fighting off the boys right and left.
Buy Links for the Honeybee Sisters here...
You can find Jennifer at:
Web site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Jennifer will be sharing her honey recipes with us every last Monday of the month!
Thank you for agreeing to share your honey recipes with us through a series. I'm really excited you agreed to do this!
Dough:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 ¼ teaspoons Saf instant yeast
1 cup warm water
Topping:
½ cup warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
Coarse salt (optional)
2 tablespoons each butter and honey melted together, or 3 tablespoons butter, melted.
Mix the water, honey and yeast in a large bowl or mixer. Wait 5 minutes for the yeast to bloom. Add salt and 2 cups flour and mix until smooth. Add ¼ cup more flour at a time and knead until dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl. Turn on to a work surface and continue to knead the dough for about 5 minutes, until it is soft and smooth. The dough shouldn’t be sticky but shouldn’t be tough either. Spray a plastic bag with cooking spray and place the dough inside the bag and seal. Let rise 30-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 500°F. (Yes! 500°) and line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and let rest for about 5 minutes. Combine baking soda and very warm water and place in a shallow bowl and stir until dissolved. Roll the dough into long ropes, about 12” long and twist into the shape of a pretzel. Dip in water and baking soda. (You will have to stir the water/soda mixture each time to keep it from separating.) Place on the baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt or coarse salt. Let rise for 10 minutes.
Bake the pretzels for 7 to 9 minutes or until they’re golden brown. While baking, melt the honey and butter together if desired.
Remove the pretzels from the oven and brush or drizzle with the honey butter or with butter. Best when eaten warm!
Makes 8 pretzels.
Thanks for sharing, Jennifer, wow I'm going to have to try these. As I'm watching calories I'm going to have to log the recipe into my Fitness Pal to check how many I need to count. LOL
Lily, Poppy, and Rose Christner, known as the Honeybee Sisters in their Amish community, are smart, inseparable, and all grown up. Orphaned when they were very young, the girls were raised by their eccentric Aunt Bitsy, who doesn’t behave like a proper Amish spinster. The Honeybee Sisters have blossomed into rare beauties, and the boys in the community have begun to take notice. But Aunt Bitsy is determined to scare off all comers with her brusque manner and her handy shotgun. None but the most worthy will make it past Bitsy’s defenses. It’s going to be a rowdy and romantic summer—harvesting honey from their many beehives and fighting off the boys right and left.
Buy Links for the Honeybee Sisters here...
You can find Jennifer at:
Web site
Goodreads
Jennifer will be sharing her honey recipes with us every last Monday of the month!
Thank you for agreeing to share your honey recipes with us through a series. I'm really excited you agreed to do this!
This looks very tasty. I think my Super Bowl crowd would love them. Jennifer is a fine author and now has wonderful Amish recipes to share as well. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHow fun and tasty looking too!
ReplyDeleteI loved grilled asparagus and deep fried in breadcrumbs, the skinner the stalk, the better. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
ReplyDelete