Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels

Sarah and I felt like making pretzels one Friday night, and this was one of the first recipes that came up when I looked up pretzel recipes. I chose this one because you don't need that many ingredients. They turned out really well! Very soft and chewy.

"Pretzels are available crisp and hard from your grocery or, if you're lucky and in the right place, soft and chewy from street vendors. Our recipe is for the soft kind, made nicely chewy thanks to the use of King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour (Mine were nicely chewy though and I used Co-op brand flour...). Melted butter brushed over the crust is a bonus street vendors don't offer!"

Ingredients

Dough

2 1/2 cups (298g) flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (7g) instant yeast
7/8 to 1 cup (198g to 227g) warm water*

*Use the greater amount in the winter, the lesser amount in the summer, and somewhere in between in the spring and fall. Your goal is a soft dough (I added more water than this to get it softer)

Topping

1 cup (227g) boiling water
2 tablespoons (28g) baking soda
coarse, kosher or pretzel salt, optional
3 tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

1. To make dough by hand or with a mixer: Place all of the dough ingredients into a bowl and beat until well-combined. Knead the dough, by hand or machine, for 5 to 8 minutes, until it's soft, smooth, and elastic, then proceed to step 4.
*This was the option I chose - I just kneaded the dough by hand for a while (it was pretty tough!)

2. To make dough with a bread machine: Place all of the dough ingredients into the pan of your bread machine, program the machine for dough or manual, and press Start. Allow the dough to go through its kneading cycle, then proceed to step 4.

3. To make dough with a food processor: Place the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in the work bowl of a food processor equipped with the steel blade. Process for 5 seconds. Add the water and process for 7 to 10 seconds, until the dough starts to clear the sides of the bowl. Process a further 45 seconds, then proceed to step 4.

4. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 30 minutes.

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5. To make the topping: While the dough is rising, prepare the topping. Combine the boiling water and baking soda, stirring until the soda is totally (or almost totally) dissolved. Set the mixture aside to cool to lukewarm (or cooler).

6. Preheat your oven to 475°F. Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with vegetable oil spray, or lining it with parchment paper.
*I used parchment paper, which made a huge, smoking mess in the kitchen. Never again!

7. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into eight equal pieces (about 70g each).

8. Allow the pieces to rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Pour the baking soda/water into a 9" square pan.

9. Roll each piece of dough into a long, thin rope (about 28" to 30" long), and twist each rope into a pretzel shape. Working with four pretzels at a time, place them in the pan with the baking soda/water, spooning the water over their tops; leave them in the water for 2 minutes before placing them on the baking sheet. This baking soda bath will give the pretzels lovely golden-brown colour.

10. Transfer the pretzels to the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle them lightly with coarse, kosher, or pretzel salt, if desired. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
*These get incredibly salty if you put too much salt on them!

11. Bake the pretzels for 8 to 9 minutes, or until they're golden brown.

12. Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush them thoroughly with the melted butter. Keep brushing the butter on until you've used it all up; it may seem like a lot, but that's what gives these pretzels their ethereal taste. Eat the pretzels warm, or reheat them in an oven or microwave.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/hot-buttered-soft-pretzels-recipe