My Wisconsin is showing. I mean pretzels are great, but this became a full blown thing after moving here. Look at a menu, see pretzel sticks with an alluring accompaniment of mustard and cheeses. No brainer. I just gotta have it. Unfortunately, I took my addiction home. And to quell it, I decided to learn about the (fun) way to make your own pretzels.
So making a pretzel is stupidly simple. It’s like making bread, but with an extra step. You have to plan ahead a bit, as the dough takes some time to set. Otherwise, it’s a cheap straightforward deal. Just gotta have that Baking Soda handy. I was surprised that was the secret. Baking Soda. That’s why pretzels are pretzels. Weird right?
What you’ll need:
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 package of yeast
- 1 tbsp butter
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup of baking soda
- *other seasonings as needed
Instructions:
- Mix the sugar, water and yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes
- Once it starts to smell yeasty, add flour, butter, salt. You can mix with your hands, mixer or any other means. They all work, but the goal is to get a nice ball of dough.
- Then let her sit covered. 45 minutes to an hour is ideal. It will probably grow a bit.
- Once it’s coming up on the 45 minute mark, start boiling about 12 cups of water and 1 cup of baking soda. Let it get to a rolling boil. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Once dough is ready, season it to your liking
- Start rolling it out to whatever shape you like. Sticks, rolls, pretzel shaped. The imagination is your limit
- Drop them one at a time into the boiling soda water mix, 40 seconds for each piece
- Coat them with beaten egg, season some more
- Cook at 450 for ~25 minutes, till golden, pretzely brown
Notes: Serve anyway you like your pretzels. I chose some sausage and cheese.