Happy Pretzel Day!

Who loves pretzels? I love pretzels!!

Here is how I make them...

Soft Pretzels 

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ¼ cups warm water

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve above ingredients and let sit for about 10 minutes. The mixture should foam a little.

Into the yeast mixture, add the following ingredients:
3 ½ cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

On a floured plate or board, knead the dough. Add about one cup more flour as needed during kneading.

Lightly oil a large bowl and roll the dough in it, so that all sides of the dough are lightly covered with oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a greased towel and let rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Shape dough into 12 pretzel shapes or about 24 twisty sticks. It seems twisty sticks are faster to shape, easier to handle, and brown more uniformly when baking (but you do what you want).

In a saucepan, dissolve ½ cup of baking soda into 4 cups of hot water. Simmer gently.

Dunk one or two pretzels at a time into the water. Use a slotted spoon or wire basket-type spatula so some of the water drains off. (Stir water mixture often to prevent baking soda from clinging to the pretzels).

Bake pretzels on a greased baking sheet for about 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Immediately brush with melted butter.

Then, enjoy them as is…or
*dip them in a bowl of parmesan cheese; or
*sprinkle a cinnamon/sugar mixture on top; or
*sprinkle course salt on top.

These are so soft and delicious--you’ll want to eat them all at once.