Homemade Soft Pretzels: A Recipe

I made these guys last night after not having them for soooo long, and wow, they will be made again very, very soon! They are SO good! I got the recipe so many years ago from Food.com, and totally forgot about it until my husband and I walked past the pretzel stand at the mall the other day and went “MMMMMM pretzels…” at the same time. Then, my husband asked me told my sister if she came over so we could finally watch our shows, I’d make pretzels lol. After the fact, I’m glad he did, because as lazy as I was last night, they were sooooo worth it!

Soft Pretzels Recipe:

• 1 1/4 cups water (hot, but not too hot that you can’t keep your finger in it for a little while)
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 cups flour
• Course salt
• Melted butter (or Earth Balance, like I used) to brush over pretzels once baked

 

Mix your hot water and brown sugar together until granules are completely dissolved, and pour over yeast. You don’t need to wait 10 minutes like some recipes say, to make sure your yeast is live, if after a few minutes it foams up, you’re good to go onto the next step.

 

Add all your bread flour in, and 1 1/4 cups your regular flour, and mix. Add the 1/4 cup flour if needed. You don’t want a wet dough, but definitely not dry!! I didn’t need to add in the whole amount, but it all depends on different things, such as the weather. I know, weird, but if it’s humid, you may need even more flour. Don’t over mix it, as you want nice, soft pretzels, not tough, and hard. Once your dough is made, let it sit for at least 20 minutes, to double in size. Once it’s risen, preheat your oven to 500F, punch the dough down, and break it off into pieces. I can’t remember how many it made, as I made different sizes and pretzel sticks as well. You want to roll it out really, really thin, as it get’s a lot bigger as it bakes.

 

Dip your dough “ropes” into some baking soda mixed with warm water, the original recipe says 1/2 cup baking soda, to 3 cups water, but I’ve never measured, and shape them into some pretzels!

While they’re still wet, place them onto your greased, lined pan (they reallllly stick, so grease your aluminum foil or parchment paper well, or even use silicone mats if you have), and shake some course salt over them. I used Trader Joe’s course kosher salt. Bake for 5 minutes, or until they get a nice golden tan (like I wish I had!). Once your pretzels come out of the oven, brush some melted butter over them so they can get nice and soft and deliciousssss.

So, I have a confession….we ate the first batch so fast that I didn’t get to take a picture, and then I was too lazy to shape pretty pretzels anymore, so I just made some sticks…..so that’s the picture you got!

My goodness…putting this post up has made me want these again tonight!!

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Until tomorrow!!