Last weekend, my wife had a craving for pretzels. No, she’s not pregnant, she just loves pretzels. We’re talking the big, huge soft pretzels covered in salt. She wanted them badly enough that she even asked if the Twins were in town – and she doesn’t like baseball. We were also looking up to see if there were any places in the Twin Cities known for their pretzels, but didn’t find much outside of a couple mall restaurants, and we weren’t feeling that brave.

As I’ve dived into cooking over the last year, one of the best things I’ve found to help teach me to cook has been Hilah Cooking, a website and Youtube channel hosted by Hilah Johnson for beginner to intermediate cooks. I’ve bought her cookbook and watched countless videos teaching me a ton of things I didn’t know, especially about how to cook, not just what to cook. These include how to season a cast iron skillet, smoke points of oil, and more. Some of these things may be basic to those who have been cooking a while, but I’ve never had anyone really show me these things, and learning them has been invaluable.

The best part about both Hilah’s writing and Youtube channel is her humor. I enjoy it and it makes it much more fun to watch than a dry cooking show on some cable channel. Also, being on Youtube, I can just grab my iPad and re-watch the episode while I cook, which is so helpful.

By chance, Hilah posted a soft pretzel recipe two days ago. The timing couldn’t have been better with my wife’s cravings, so I ran out to the store yesterday and picked up some yeast and bread flour. The recipe is very simple and the pretzels turned out great. They took a little longer to cook then the recipe calls for and they’re not as dark brown as shown the video. I’m not sure if that’s due to the beer I used, but they tasted fantastic, which is what matters! The wife agreed and I see us making more of these in the future.

Here’s the episode from Hilah’s Youtube channel as she visits Easy Tiger in Austin, known for their pretzels and beer garden, as well as the recipe.

[//www.youtube.com/embed/gZJcNsUhnkM?list=PLia0F9Sr8Q6RCZBrAtp42oNTLnvCQTMDF]