A Pretzel is a Beautiful Thing

I was reading Barbara's menu earlier when the word pretzel caught my eye. Synonymous with pretzels to me, are the American mall kiosks, Auntie Anne's. If you've never had an Auntie Anne's pretzel you are missing out. As I got thinking about these glorious delicacies it occurred to me to google them and see if there was a copy cat recipe out there. Um, yeah, at least 100! The following is my version. I read lots of different recipes along with the comments and reviews to try and devise the most accurate and simplistic recipe I could. The result - fantastic - not an exact copy, but pretty close and a big hit one way or another. This one is definitely a keeper! You could of course leave the salt off and dip in a cinnamon and sugar mixture after baking for a sweet version. My rolling technique leaves a bit to be desired as the lumpy picture will attest, but it didn't effect the taste! Next time I will probably use clarified butter to brush on them, but other than that I would keep everything the same. I used organic sea salt to garnish, but you could use whatever crystallised salt you have on hand. Apparently there is even "pretzel salt" in case you are an avid pretzel fan! Fleur de sel or sel gris would be wonderful too!

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 4 tsp yeast
• 3 tbsp soft butter
• 1 heaped tsp salt
• 3/4 cup baking/bread soda
• boiling water
• sea/kosher/rock/pretzel salt
• melted butter to brush
  

Dissolve the yeast and butter in the warm water and allow to sit for a few minutes. Sift flour, sugar and salt into large bowl. When yeast mixture begins to froth slightly, add into dry ingredients. Mix together with a spoon until it comes together. Knead for about ten minutes until very smooth. This dough is very elastic, but should not be sticky.

Allow to rise in a greased bowl in a warm place until doubled in size.

Make a water bath for the pretzels by adding the baking soda to a pot of simmering water.

Once dough has risen divide into ten pieces and roll the first piece out. You want to start rolling in the middle and stretch it with your palms as you go. You will roll and stretch until you have a fairly uniform piece about 3 feet long. Loop into a pretzel shape and pinch to connect. Add to water bath. Allow to boil until it floats. Meanwhile roll second piece of dough.

Once floating, remove pretzel from pot and place on greased baking tray. Remove any excess water with a paper towel. Repeat with remaining pretzels.

Sprinkle with salt and bake in the highest temperature of your oven for 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Brush with butter and serve immediately!

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