Homemade Soft Pretzels

                Oddly, my first bread maker post is not going to be about bread!  Instead, I’m going to tell you about these soft pretzels I made from scratch.  They were delicious.  They looked and tasted exactly as a soft pretzel should so you should definitely try them!

Recipe (from the Cuisinart Booklet)

1 cup water, room temperature

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar, firmly packed

3 ¼ cups bread flour

2 ¼ teaspoons yeast

                Okay, I dumped all that in order in my bread maker and used the Dough program.  If you don’t have a bread maker, then you can make the dough the old-fashioned way with hand kneading and rising in the oven.  It will work just as well!

                After your dough is ready, place it on a lightly floured surface.  Since I’ve never made pretzel dough before, I kneaded it slightly to get a feel for it.  

The recipe makes enough dough for 12 pretzels so it should be broken into twelve equal portions.  Take one portion and roll it on the floured surface into a long tube of dough.

                Now, the dough from my machine came out dry.  Rolling it wasn’t easy.  I’m not sure if you’ve ever watched the Auntie Anne’s workers made pretzels, but they just roll it out in a few seconds, twist it into form and move on.  This dough was not like that.  I ended up wetting my hands and the outside of the dough with water to make it easier to roll.  I had no problems with it sticking to the counter because slightly too much flour was in the dough already.  I think that if I make these again, I might reduce the flour amount or increase the water.  

                I was able to roll out each piece to 5.5 – 6 inches after about 5 – 10 minutes of work.  You will earn these pretzels.

                After each one was rolled and twisted, I placed it directly on a cookie sheet (ours are calphalon) and allowed them to rest for ~ 30 minutes.

In the mean time, prepare these things: 

Large pot of boiling water

2 cups water + 2 tablespoons dissolved baking soda

Preheat oven to 425°

Pretzel salt / kosher salt

                Place all pretzels in the boiling water and boil for three minutes.  After 90 seconds, flip each pretzel in the water.  Using tongs, remove each boiled pretzel and place it on a wire cooling rack to drain.  One at time, dip each pretzel in the dissolved baking soda mixture and place back on the cookie sheet.  Sprinkle each with the desired amount of salt.  We used kosher salt because it was easiest.  Bake at 425° for 15 – 20 minutes.

                When they are finished, place on a cooling rack (ours are stackable and I love them!).  

 

They will look like this!!

   

YUM!