Almost World Famous Soft Pretzel Recipe

I tried pinning my favorite pretzel bun recipe on Pintrest but because there was no picture on the page it wouldn't let me. Anyway, I've copied the recipe from Strothotte.com so that I can find it more easily when I want to make it :) These things are delicious and the story that goes with them makes me smile every time! We make salami sandwiches with them (the spicy Genoa salami is a personal favorite) using just butter and salami. They are great for travelling and beat any of the terrible snacks that you can buy in airports or on planes these days. The dough is easy to shape as well so you can make all sorts of different shaped breads; one Halloween I even made soft pretzel slugs. Mmmm!

Almost World Famous!

For ~8 Pretzel buns/ 3 dozen 6-inch sticks/1 dozen 6-inch Pretzels

1 tbsp Yeast
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp softened butter or softened margarine 
1 cup warm (115-+ deg F) water

2 3/4 cups flour

Coarse Salt to sprinkle on Pretzels before baking
5 tsp baking soda mixed in 4 cups water in a non-aluminum saucepan.
1 large slotted spoon to "go fishing"
Greased cookie sheet
Preheat oven to 475 F

Put yeast, sugar, salt, butter/marg, water and ONE CUP of the flour into a medium mixing bowl and pour in the water.

Stir till all smooth, and yeast starts to bubble.

At this point add the rest of the flour, stir till it is mixed in.
When mixture is too stiff to stir with a spoon, begin kneading.
Knead dough till smooth and till it no longer sticks to the bowl and your hands

Allow dough to rise to about double its height.

While dough is rising, grease the cookie sheet. and prepare the baking soda-water mixture and bring to a boil on stove.

When dough is risen enough, punch down, knead for a minute or so, then divide and roll the 6-inch sticks with your hands, to about 1/2 inch in diameter, or 12-15-inch long rolls to make into the pretzel shape.

Allow sticks or pretzels to sit for about 1-2 mins. Place them into boiling water-baking soda mixture one or two at a time.

Let the pretzels boil for 1 minute 10 seconds, then flip them over with the slotted spoon and boil on the other side for 1 minute and 10 seconds.

This boiling step gives them a firm skin and adds some flavour. Not boiling long enough leaves them too soft and allows them to rise too much. Boiling too long makes them tough.

Fish them out of the water, let them drip off and place them on the greased cookie sheet.

When all the pretzels or sticks are done, sprinkle the coarse salt on them.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or till sticks or pretzels are golden brown.

You can double the recipe in proportion.

ENJOY!!

Here's why I call this recipe "Almost World Famous". One fine day a few years ago, President George Bush choked on a pretzel and fainted. Shortly thereafter, I had a really big spike in hits on this page. Turns out that the Guardian Unlimited online had published an article on pretzels. The reporter included a link to this little recipe as an example of soft and non-life-threatening form of the art or pretzel-making. Thanks, Dubya!