Great soft pretzels!

[jjirons69]

I've made these many times and my daughter and I baked up another batch this afternoon. Man are they so freaking good!! If you love warm, soft, buttery, salty pretzels, give this recipe a whirl. Or post your own if you often make pretzels, I'd like to see what else folks do and enjoy.

4 t active dry yeast
1 t sugar
1 1/4 C warm water (110F)

5 C all purpose or bread flour (I use bread flour)
1/2 C sugar
1 1/1 t salt
1 T vegetable oil

1/2 C baking soda
4 C hot water
1/4 C kosher salt
1/4 stick butter melted

In a small bowl whisk yeast and 1 t sugar in the warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until creamy.

In a large bowl (I use the mixer bowl with the bread kneading tines), mix flour, 1/2 C sugar, and 1 1/2 t salt. Make well in the center. Add oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If mixture is dry, add one to two Tbsp of water. Knead dough until smooth, about 7-8 minutes. The mixer with tines works great and saves your wrists. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 450F. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in the hot water.

When risen, turn dough onto lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope or hold by ends and gently stretch to get a rope about 1.5 to 2 feet long and about the thickness as a Sharpie marker. Twist into a pretzel shape and wet ends to secure. Once all the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Brush each with melted butter and sprinkle with course salt.

Bake in preheated oven for 7-8 minutes, until brown.

Enjoy!