Homemade Pretzels

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make a snack to eat while we watched an ASU game. We had been talking about making homemade pretzels for a while so when I found this recipe and knew it would be a winner. It was so good and fairly easy that I ended up making a second batch a couple of weeks later.

Ingredients

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (not warm enough to burn your finger if you put it in the water for 5 seconds)

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oils

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and the teaspoon of sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand for about 10 minutes. The mixture should be foamy (see picture below).

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, the rest of the sugar, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. You will likely need to add a few tablespoons of water while mixing.

Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 or 8 minutes. Put dough in a lightly greased bowl and flip dough around so both sides are lightly greased. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about an hour.

Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape or a knot.

In a large bowl, dissolve the baking soda in 4 cups of hot water.

Dip each piece of dough in the baking soda solution and place on either a greased or tin foil covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with desired amount of kosher salt.

Bake at 450 degrees between 8 or 10 minutes or until brown.