Soft Pretzels
- December 2013
- Recipes
Sometimes you just want a pretzel…or 3. These are the best just out of the oven, or reheated in a toaster oven–really good with brown mustard too.
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 1/2 cups very warm water
4 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose or bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/8 cup olive oil
5 cups water
1/3 cup baking soda
coarse sea salt and sesame seeds
Combine the very warm water, maple syrup and yeast in a bowl. Let it sit until the yeast foams a little (about 3 minutes), then add the olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt and the flour. When it gets past the stirring point, start kneading. If the bowl is big, you can do the kneading inside the bowl, or else turn it out onto a wooden cutting board.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a towel, let it rise in a warm place for about an hour.
Heat the oven to 450, grease a cookie sheet. In a large saucepan, bring the water and baking soda to a boil. Split the dough into 8 balls. Roll out long snakes and make pretzel shapes. Boil each one in the boiling soda water for about a minute (I can usually fit 3 at a time in my saucepan). Fish them out with a slotted spoon and put on the baking sheet. Brush the tops with olive oil or Earth Balance and sprinkle them with salt and sesame seeds.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until they are brown. Try not to gobble them while they are still smoking hot because you will burn your mouth.
You’re awesome 🙂
I will try this. But i’m curious what the difference between pretzels and bagels are. Do you know?
Usually with bagels, I don’t add olive oil to the dough and I boil them in plain water, without the baking soda added. And different shape, of course.
🙂
Thanks!
How long do you knead the dough for, before covering it & letting it rise?
not too long, just until it is smooth without being sticky (usually about 5 minutes)–it’s usually a little sticky when I start, and I keep kneading in some extra flour until it reaches that point.
I love this recipe, I’ve made these pretzels several times, and I recently made one minor modification – instead of dipping them in the baking soda bath, I’ve started using food-grade lye to make them more like traditional German pretzels. The lye is caustic and needs to be handled with care, but makes the outside crust a richer brown and my German boyfriend says they’re perfect, just like the pretzels he grew up eating. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Thanks for the recipe! I bake bread often, but it’s my first time making pretzels. Really easy, and sooo good. Even better to share! http://instagram.com/p/y1B3PjnLqM/?modal=true
wow! I’m a little scared of lye, but also very curious 🙂
those look great!