Soft Pretzels

I don't know if any of you have been following me long enough to remember my recipe book or not. Anyway, this leather bound beauty is a treasure house of delicious recipes. I find a recipe that sounds good, clip it, put it in my recipe keeper, and then eventually I write it into my book. Sometimes I include photos that came with the original recipe or sometimes I put in photos of my own creations. I put this recipe into my book at work last week and decided to make them yesterday. As always, I switched the recipe up a little bit to make it my own. Eventually, I want to make my own cookbook and this little hand-made recipe book is a stepping stone towards that. But for now, I present to you: Soft Pretzels.

Ingredients:

1 .25oz package of active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

a pinch of salt

4-5 cups of flour

A splash of vegetable oil or cooking spray

2 Tablespoons baking soda

Instructions:

1. Combine yeast, sugar, salt and 2 cups flour. 

I wanted to take a picture of the yeast because I hardly ever use it and want to use it more often so...using yeast is a tad bit exciting still.

Here is the beautiful flour after it is sifted through my gorgeous antique sifter. 

2. Add 1 1/2 cups of hot water and 1 Tablespoon of oil to your beautiful pile of flour and yeast and such, then beat it until it is combined. Then, add flour slowly until the dough moves away from the sides of the mixing bowl and pulls towards itself.

3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 5 minutes.  Stop when the dough is smooth. 

I do not think I've ever done this before so I really just moved it all around.I apologize for the awful photo, too.

4. Coat a metal bowl in oil and then set the dough in it. If you are using vegetable oil flip the dough over so both sides have oil on them. If you are using vegetable spray simply spray the top of the dough once it is in the bowl. Cover it with a dish towel and set somewhere warm for 45 minutes or until it doubles in size.

I set mine on the porch because it was warm out yesterday.

5. Once it is done rising, punch the dough down. Then, cut it into 8 different sections.

6. Flour your hands and roll one of the sections into a long skinny line like this.

Then, make it into a "U" shape.

Twist the top ends together twice.

Finally, wet the bottom of the "U" and roll the twisted ends down. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

7. While you are doing this with the rest of the sections, bring 4 or 5 cups of water and the baking soda to a simmer in a large skillet. Drop two pretzels at a time into the simmering water and leave it there for 30 seconds. Flip the pretzels over and let them simmer for 30 seconds on the other side. Repeat until you have done this to all of the pretzels.

8. Top with desired toppings. 

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pretzels are a dark golden brown. They did not all turn out picture perfect but, it was my first attempt and they moved around a bit in the water. Hopefully, yours turn out prettier!

If you want a glaze for the cinnamon and sugar pretzels mix a tiny bit of powdered sugar with milk and vanilla until it has the consistency of a glaze. 

Next time I'm going to try making pretzels sticks!

Let me know if you attempt this recipe and if so, how it turns out.