Pretzel Recipe

I love big soft pretzel with warm cheese and some pizza sauce for dipping.  It's one of my favorite treats to get at the mall.  I saw a recipe a few months ago and I have made them myself several times since then.  The only deviation from the recipe comes from when we occasionally put some garlic on top before baking, or make them shaped like sticks or even real pretzels.  Bites are so easy to make though!

The original recipe can be found by clicking here.

Ingredients:
Part One:  Dough
1.5 cups warm water- not too hot, don't kill your yeast!
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 package or 2.25 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 tablespoons of melted butter
2.5 teaspoons kosher salt
4.5 cups all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil

Part Two:  Baking
12 cups water
3/4 cup baking soda
2 eggs beaten with 2 tablespoons of cold water
Kosher salt to sprinkle


Add the water, brown sugar, yeast, and melted butter to the bowl of your stand mixer.  I let the melted butter sit for a few minutes, as I'm always scared it's going to be too hot and kill the yeast.  Mix these together with your dough hook.  Add the flour and kosher salt and mix well with your dough hook.  The dough will ride around on the hook when it's well mixed.  Knead the dough a few times with your hands into a nice ball shape.  Place in a bowl greased with vegetable oil and cover with a towel.  Let it sit for an hour so that it rises.  I put my bowl in the oven and just turn on the oven light.  It was doubled in less than an hour this way!


Now, you want to boil 12 cups of water and when it's boiling add 3/4 cup of baking soda.  Shape your dough however you like- I generally use a knife to cut the blob into about 8 strips, cut those strips in half, roll them out a bit, and cut those into bites.  Do whatever you like!  Whatever your shape is, boil it for about 30 seconds.  Remove with a big slotted spoon- I have a GIANT one from Pampered Chef that I adore for this sort of thing.  I place the bites on a dinner plate and brush them with the egg & water mixture.  Not TOO much- dripping down the sides = sticks to your pan!  I then transfer them to the baking sheet and sprinkle them with kosher salt.


Bake at 425 degrees.  It takes my gas oven about 12-15 minutes to get these looking done.  You know your oven, just watch them the first time you make them and figure out how much time you need.


These are FAB fresh out of the oven, but I've also frozen them (tip- bake them for 1/2 the needed time and then freeze.  To reheat, spray with melted butter, add a sprinkle more salt if needed, and pop in an oven or toaster oven on 350 for 10 minutes or so.  I use my toaster oven) and they keep well in a covered bin in the fridge (reheat the same as frozen but only for about 5 minutes).


This recipe made THREE dinner plates like this!  Four baking sheets worth of bites!

And this is my favorite way to enjoy them :)