Soft Pretzels are my favorite snacks and never knew making ’em at home would be so easy. I made these from scratch last evening, and it’s lot easier than it looks. The prep time is about 30 minutes, given the kneading and rolling and all that extra attention deserved by this yummy snack, and the cooking time is about 20 minutes – but it was worth every moment and effort spent making it!
Warm about ¼ cup of water for 15 seconds. Add a teaspoon of sugar and dissolve it. Add yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Knead dough using warm water and yeast. Key is to knead the dough for at least 10-12 minutes to make it smooth. Oil a container and put the dough away in it for an hour or more. I usually warm the oven slightly – for about a minute or so to put the dough so that it rises quickly. Turn off the oven before you put the dough in it.
After an hour (or more), re-knead the dough for about a minute. Make 8 parts from this dough. Pre-heat the oven up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out the dough (about 2 feet each long) on a flat surface, using little flour if needed. Shape it into a pretzel by making a heart shape and crossing over each end. Keep it aside on a surface, which is oiled a little bit until you have rolled out all the pretzels.
Line the baking trays with the parchment paper. Be careful using the parchment paper in the oven.
Warm about 1 cup of water, add a teaspoon of sugar in it and dissolve. Dip each pretzel in this warm water before putting it on the baking tray.
Warm 2 tablespoons of butter. Brush each pretzel with butter (multiple times from now until the pretzels are baked).
Sprinkle kosher salt on the pretzel. Also, add either minced garlic or Jalapeño rings on the pretzels, unless you like it plain.
Put the trays in the pre-heated oven. If you have trays on 2 different levels in the oven, switch the trays to the other level after about 8 minutes. From then on, check the pretzels after about every 3 minutes until these are done. Total bake time should be about 20 minutes, varies depending upon the oven.
Put the oven on broil for the last 1-2 minutes, but keep a close eye on the pretzels when you do that, checking every 30 seconds. Turn off the oven and remove the Pretzel trays out of the oven.Once the pretzels are out of the oven, brush these one more time with melted butter.
Notes
The pretzels taste yummy hot out of the oven and dipped in mustard.This recipe makes 8 big pretzels. I suggest you double the batch as these taste yummy hot out of the oven and 8 pretzels will be gone in no time.