Soft Pretzels

I love living in the South. The weather is warmer, life moves slower, and the people are a bit nicer. But as much as I love it here, I sometimes long for the food of my childhood. If I could bring cheesesteaks, hoagies, a NY slice of pizza, and soft pretzels to North Carolina the world would be a beautiful place.

As a kid, I thought it was weird that we brought soft pretzels and deli meat with us when we went to visit my uncle in Maryland, but now I understand his pain. I have no deli to turn when I want a warm, salty, soft pretzel. So this past weekend, I turned to my oven to try my hand at making my own soft pretzels. While they didn’t quite meet the glory of my youth, they were still pretty damn good.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

3tbsp brown sugar lightly packed

2tbsp butter - melted

1tbsp active dry yeast

2tsp fine salt

3 cups warm water

1/3 cup baking soda

Pretzel salt (any coarse salt works)

4tbsp butter - melted

To make the dough, warm up the milk in the microwave for 2 minutes and add the 1tbsp of active dry yeast. Gently stir the two together and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add the brown sugar and butter before mixing well. Slowly mix in the 2 1/2 cups of flour and add the fine salt. I prefer to add my flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well in between each addition. Mix the dough well and knead it for 10minutes by hand or using a stand mixer. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and set it in a warm place for 1 hour. After 1 hour the mixture should have doubled in size. Punch down the down to remove the excess air and form it into a ball.

Divide your ball of dough into 12 equally sized smaller pieces and roll them out on a well floured surface. Try to make the rolled out dough as thin as possible as it will double in width when we add it to the baking soda solution. To roll out the dough, begin in the middle and pull it gently apart as your roll it back and forth. If a piece breaks off, just stick it back together and keep going.

After you've rolled out the dough, make a circle that is twisted at the top, like shown above. Try to keep the sides even as you twist. Twist the top once more and then fold it down to form the classic pretzel shape. Repeat the process for all 12 pieces of dough

On the stove bring the 3 cups of warm water and the 1/3 cup of baking soda to a gentle boil. When the water begins to boil, turn down your stove to simmer.

Preheat your oven to 450°

Dip each pretzel in the baking soda solution and submerge it in the water for 10-15 seconds. Use a slotted spoon or a fork to remove the pretzels from the baking soda and place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.

Reshape your pretzels if they've come undone in the baking soda solution and prepare your baking sheet. Give each pretzel about 1inch of empty space around it as it will double in size as it bakes. Place your pretzels in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

As your pretzels bake, melt 4-6tbsp of butter into a shallow bowl. As soon as your pretzels are finished baking remove them from the oven, and dip them in the melted butter. Place the buttered pretzels back onto the baking sheet and salt them to your taste using a coarse salt.

Spice things up with a spicy mustard or cheese sauce for dipping, and enjoy!