Eat In Recipe: Homemade Soft Pretzels

I don’t know why, but I’ve been intimidated by making pretzels.  Ever since we ate pretzel breadsticks at Walt Disney World’s Le Cellier restaurant in Epcot, I’ve been wanting to make them at home.  Soft, buttery and slightly salty, warm pretzels. Yum. 

I ran into this recipe that looked both fantastic and doable, so I went for it.  I wanted to make it into breadsticks, but didn’t have a pot to boil them in that would be wide enough for long breadsticks, so I made regular pretzels instead and they turned out soft, buttery and slightly salt…just like I wanted.  I served them up at my recent book club meeting and they were a hit (along with delicious apple butter). 

Homemade Soft Pretzels adapted from Annie’s Eats
For the dough:
1½ c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 1/2 c. flour
4 T. unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil

For finishing:
Cooking spray
10 c. water
2/3 c. baking soda
4 T. unsalted butter, melted
Kosher salt, to taste

1. To make the dough, combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on low speed until the yeast is dissolved.  Add the flour and melted butter and mix until the dough just comes together.  Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes.  Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled.
2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray or with a Silpat.  Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot.  The water will fizz a lot as it boils.
3. Meanwhile, divide the dough into 16 equal pieces (use a kitchen scale if you have one).  Working one at a time, roll each piece into a 12-18” long rope.  Make a U-shape with the dough, and holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and onto the bottom of the U-shape to form a pretzel.  Transfer to the baking sheet.
4. Working two pretzels at a time, place into the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds, flipping once.  Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to remove the pretzels from the water and transfer back to the baking sheet. 
5. Using 2 tablespoons of the melted butter, brush the pretzels with the butter.  Sprinkle each pretzel with salt to taste, and bake until they are a dark golden-brown, about 12-15 minutes. Brush with the remaining butter, transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes, and serve.

Makes 16 pretzels rolls.

Notes:  Original recipe divided the pretzels into 8 pieces & made large pretzels, but I liked the size of the dough divided into 16 better.  They are more the size of rolls.

Average Fork Rating:  4
Mrs. Diner:  4
Amazing Diner:  4
Sweet Diner:  4
Little Diner:  4