Monday, September 9, 2013

Homemade Soft Pretzels


Who doesn't love soft pretzels? They're even better when they're homemade and right out of the oven! Although there are a good number of steps involved in the process, they're really not too difficult to make and totally worth it (adapted from this recipe)!!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

(Yields 8 pretzels)

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 4 1/2 cups flour
  • 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
  • 10 cups water
  • 2/3 cup baking soda
  • 1 egg yolk + 1 Tbsp. water, beaten together
  • Pretzel salt

Directions:

  1. Combine water, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top and allow to sit for 5 minutes (mixture will foam)
  2. Add flour and melted butter. Use the dough hook attachment on your mixer and mix on low speed until ingredients are combined
  3. Remove dough from bowl and knead by hand for 5 minutes, until dough is smooth
  4. Brush oil on another bowl and place dough in bowl. Cover bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place for 50-55 minutes or until dough doubles in size
  5. Preheat oven to 450°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and brush with oil
  6. Combine water and baking soda in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil
  7. Remove risen dough onto the counter. Cut into 8 equal-sized portions
  8. Roll each portion into a long rope, about 24 inches long
  9. Make a pretzel shape with the dough: form the rope into a U shape. Hold then ends of the rope, cross them over each other, then press them down on the bottom of the U. Set aside formed pretzels
  10. Place each pretzel into the boiling water - one by one - for 30 seconds. There should only be ONE pretzel in the water at a time. After 30 seconds, remove pretzel from water using a large spatula
  11. Let water drain off pretzel, then place it on the prepared cookie sheet. Leave room between your pretzels, you want them to have space to bake (I fit 6 pretzels on a 13x18-inch sheet)
  12. Brush the top of each pretzel with the egg yolk and water mixture. Wherever you brush the egg yolk mixture, the pretzels will turn golden in color, so put it all over the top of the pretzels!! Finally, sprinkle the pretzels with pretzel salt
    **I found it best to boil all the pretzels in the baking soda water, then brush all the pretzels with the egg yolk mixture, then sprinkle all the pretzels with salt. This prevented the salt from dissolving while it sat in the egg yolk mixture
  13. Bake the pretzels for 12-14 minutes, or until golden in color
  14. Transfer to a cooling rack and wait 5 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long!)

Here are the finished pretzels. They didn't last long, they were gone by the end of the day!


Enjoy and thanks for reading!

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