Elisa's Cantine: Soft Pretzels

Click me for a close up view of my yumminess!

When I first saw this recipe in the October edition of the Food Network magazine I just knew I had to try it. Even though it looked slightly challenging I felt it would be worth the effort. Boy was I right. These are absolutely addictive, like fresh bread out of the oven on steroids.

Surprisingly they were actually not that difficult to make. The most challenging part for me was shaping the thing to resemble a pretzel, which (maybe due to my lack of artistic skill) was completely puzzling for me, even with step by step pictures. Regardless, even if some were misshapen they still tasted like heaven.

For 12 pretzels
Ingredients

3 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature
some melted butter for brushing
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 ¼ tsp of active dry yeast
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp kosher salt plus more for sprinkling
2/3 cup baking soda

Step 1: Activating your yeast

Mix together in the bowl of a stand mixer 2 cups of warm water (I heated cold water on high for 1 minute in the microwave) with the cubed butter and brown sugar. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Before

After 10 minutes

If the yeast doesn't foam, it's either too old of you did something wrong. If it's the former, buy new yeast, if it's the latter, discard and start again.

Step 2: Starting the dough

Add 3 cups of the flour and 2 teaspoons of salt to the yeast mixture. Remember the rules when measuring flour. Do not dip your cup in the flour. Instead, pour the flour in your measuring cup until overflowing (without tapping) and use a knife to level it off. If you don't do this you risk putting in too much flour which in turn will make your dough too dry.

With the hook attachment, mix on low until the flour is incorporated and increase the speed to medium.

Dough after first 3 cups of flour

Add the rest of the flour at low speed once again. Increase the speed to medium. At this point your dough should gather into a ball and pull away from the sides. Let run for roughly 5 minutes

After 6 cups of flour, kneaded for 5 minutes

Brush a metal bowl with some melted butter and add the dough, coating it in the butter. Cover with a plastic wrap and let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Before

After 1 hour

Step 3: Forming the pretzels

Divide your dough into 12 pieces. Just cut it in half, and cut each half into 6 pieces.

Measure out a 24 inch piece of string and place on your counter as a guidance. This will be the length you will need to roll out from you pieces of dough. With your hands, take a piece of the dough and roll out from the middle outwards until it reaches the length of the string.

Once at the right length, take the rope of dough and form into a U and twist 2 times in the middle. Fold the ends over and attach them to the bottom of the U.

It's a little rough, but you get the idea.

Place on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet (coated with cooking spray) and repeat with the rest of the dough pieces. You should have 3 baking sheets with 4 pretzels on each. Once completed, cover your sheets with plastic wrap and let the pretzels rise for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Boiling/Baking the pretzels

While the pretzels are rising, preheat your oven to 425°F and place one oven rack in the top third of the oven, and another in the bottom third. Bring 10 cups of water to a simmer with the baking soda, whisking it to dissolve it completely in the water.

Once your 30 minutes are up, carefully peel the pretzels away from the baking sheet and slip them into the simmering water. Simmer for 45 seconds and carefully flip them over to simmer for another 45 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pretzels and place them back on your baking sheet. Do this in batches of 3 or 4.

This step is actually the secret to making the pretzels. The baking soda creates a base environment that coats the pretzels. This alkalinity helps along the Maillard reaction, which is the browning of the dough. Simply put, the baking soda bath with help the pretzel brown up faster while baking, Therefore you won't need to bake it as long to have a crusty outside which allows the texture inside to remain soft, and wonderful.

After boiling, ready for the oven

Once all of the pretzels have been boiled, sprinkle them generously with salt and put them in the oven. Bake them for roughly 6 minutes and then rotate the pans in the oven. Bake them for another 6 minutes or until they are sufficiently brown on the outside.

Once out of the oven, brush the top with some melted butter. Wait a couple of minutes and enjoy. They are at their best fresh out of the oven. I dare you to eat just one.