Soft Pretzels

Happy Soft Pretzel Sunday!

Have you ever wanted to replicate the taste and aroma of Auntie Anne's pretzels in your own home? If the answer is yes, you've reached the right recipe.  This is super simple and just requires some muscles to knead the dough and some patience to wait for the dough to rise.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of flour

2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast (1 packet)

1 Tsp of salt 

1 Tsp of sugar

1 cup of warm water

1/2 cup of baking soda (for glaze)

3 Tbsp butter (for glaze)

1 cup of hot water (for glaze)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast, warm water, sugar and salt. Combine until well mixed and begin kneading the dough until it becomes pliable.  This usually takes about 5-6 minutes of continuous kneading.  Put the dough into plastic wrap, lightly floured and line with cooking spray.  Allow the dough to rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place.  I usually place it on the stovetop and I preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

While the dough is rising, in another mixing bowl, combine the baking soda, hot water and salt and allow the baking soda and salt to dissolve, creating the glaze that you'll use to soak the dough before forming the pretzels.  Also, take out a baking/cookie sheet and line with wax paper along with additional cooking spray to ensure that the pretzels do not stick to the cookie sheet while baking.  

Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and roll out the dough into a square form.  You'll want to create and cut out 8  12-15 inch long pieces.  This will create 8 medium size pretzels or you can do some pretzel bites too, just cut down the pieces into 2-3 inch bites! Once the pieces have been cut out, dip into the baking soda and water mixture and allow the dough to soak for a few minutes.  Remove from the mixture and form the dough by creating a horsehoe shape, wrapping the ends slightly and then double back to the "U" bottom part of the shape to create your standard pretzel shape.  There are many ways to do this but being that I'm a lefty, I like to do things a bit differently sometimes! Place the final products onto the cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.  They'll bake quickly so be prepared! In the meantime, melt the butter in the microwave to brush on top of each pretzel. Once out of the oven, immediately brush each pretzel and/or pretzel bite and add as much or as little salt as desired.  Allow to cool, if possible, before eating all of them, but it's kind of impossible! The smell of your kitchen will remind you of Auntie Anne's pretzels in your local mall or shopping center.