Soft Pretzel

Dear recipe, I apologized for doubting you. I kneaded the dough for 3 hours (or at least that's how long it felt like) before it looked something close to "smooth and elastic."

The dough was pretty tough and dry before I added maybe 1-2 tablespoons more water toward the last part of that 3 hours. It was the absolute right move at the moment! Them pretzels were 199% delicious in the end.



Soft Pretzels
recipe from cdkitchen via AJ's Cooking Secrets
- makes 12

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour
2 cups Warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. (Cover with warm towel&)Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. Or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!
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Reheat these goodies in the oven if you are eating them the next day!



Mine were topped with cinnamon and sugar, some with almonds, and some with dried onion flakes! Some sort of dip/ sour cream mix would complement these pretzels really well too.



Some improvements I would make next time is add 3-4 tablespoons more water than the recipe calls for and rolling the dough longer.. to about arm length. My pretzels definitely turned out on the chubby side :p Also, my dough was still pretty tough after the extra 1-2 tbsp water.. 3-4 tbsp should be most ideal. Either that.. or I will pack lighter on the flour. (: