SOFT PRETZELS

A couple of weeks ago I saw that a friend on Facebook had a photo of soft pretzels that she had made that day.  They looked very good.  I decided to try making pretzels as I never had made them before.  They are not difficult to make but the recipe requires several steps as they are boiled before they are baked.  The shape of my pretzels are not perfect, they look more like a roll than a pretzel, but they tasted really good.  This is a recipe that I will be making again.  The DH quite enjoyed them.  I did freeze about half of them for future eating.

Rolled into pretzels and getting ready to put into a pot of boiling water.

Ready for sampling.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

2 cups warm water

1 cup flour

1 tbsp salt

4 cups of flour

1 egg, beaten in a small cup with 1 tbsp water (egg wash)

small roasting pan filled half way with water

1 tbsp baking soda

DIRECTIONS:

Into a medium size bowl or a food processor/mix master bowl, add the yeast, sugar and 2 cups of water.  Gently mix the ingredients and then let it rest for a few minutes until the yeast is foamy.  Add the one cup of flour and using a mix spoon or a dough hook, mix the flour into the water yeast mixture.  Add the rest of the flour and the salt, mix the ingredients and either knead by hand on a smooth surface or use the dough hook and knead for about 4 to 5 minutes.  Oil a medium size bowl and place the dough into the bowl.  Roll the dough around until it is covered with the oil.  Cover, place the bowl out of the draft, and let it rise for about an hour.

Gently punch the dough down and knead for a minute.  Divide the dough up into sixteen pieces and roll out each piece into a 14 inch length rope.  Make the rope into a U shape and cross the ends over each other and press the ends into the bottom part of the U so it looks like a pretzel.  Place each pretzel onto an oiled cookie sheet or a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.  

Add the baking soda to the roasting pan and boil the water in the roaster to a rolling boil on top of the stove.  You need to use a roasting pan that can sit on a heat element on top of the stove.  Using a flat slotted spoon, add a few of the pretzels at a time to the roasting pan and let the pretzels boil for 30 seconds.  Remove each pretzel using the slotted spoon back to the cookie sheet.

Once all of the pretzels have been boiled, brush each pretzel with the egg wash and sprinkle with salt.  Place the cookie sheets into a preheated oven at 450 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Makes 16 pretzels.