Soft Pretzels

This will probably be a short blog post as I am supposed to head out to Cleveland to visit my in-laws for a Very Pandemic Memorial Day Weekend. This is the first time since March that we have gone out to see anyone, so it's a needed reprieve. So how does this relate to soft pretzels? Every year, my husband and I have an annual cookie party that people go nuts over. Usually, my in-laws come over and stay the night before the cookie party so they don't have to make the hour and a half hour long trip two times in one day. At our cookie party, we always have a few savory appetizers and a cocktail of choice for our guests. We also put out a veggie tray. I think the rule is: If you have a piece of celery dipped after every cookie, the calories from the cookies don't count. I'm not a scientist, but that seems right. 

On this particular cookie party, I was making soft pretzels the night before and I was going to serve it with beer cheese (not included on this page). My father-in-law, John,  saw the large pile of dough I was working with and said, "That's going to take you all night to make pretzels!" I looked at my watch and said, "No... probably under 2 hours." I was right. Now, here is the thing about my husband, he is a bit of a food vulture. We all have these in our families. They circle around the bowl of cookie dough or frosting and try to steal bits and pieces of it. While my husband refuses to think he's anything like his father, his father is almost as bad as he is. Once the pretzels came out of the oven, there John was, hovering. Now, in my direct Italian family, if someone wants something, we'll just tell you. "I want a pretzel," they'd demand. My in-laws are WASPs and tend to infer they'd want something. For example, John said, "Boy.... those look good." That his way of saying, "I want one." I was happy enough to oblige. 

This recipe is wonderful because you can make pretzel shapes, pretzel bread sticks, or pretzel nuggets. Whatever your heart desires. They freeze well and reheat easily by simply wrapping them in a damp paper towel and heating at 50% power for a minute. 

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon of white sugar

1 ¼ cups of warm water (about 110-Degrees F)

5 cups (600 grams) all purpose flour

½ cup (100 grams) of white sugar

1 ½ teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

½ cup of baking soda

4 cups of hot water

Pretzel salt (or coarse sea salt) (for topping)

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two more tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease 2 baking sheets.

In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in 4 cups hot water; set aside. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and cut into 2 inch pieces. Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda-hot water solution for about 5 to 10 seconds and place pretzels on baking sheets. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake in preheated oven until browned, about 8 minutes. Remove and brush with melted butter. Once cooled, they can be frozen and reheated in the microwave. Simply wrap your frozen soft pretzel in a damp paper towel and heat for 1 minute at 50% power. Warning, it's been a while since I've had to reheat these as they never last. You may need to adjust the time or power setting depending on your microwave.