My wife wanted me to make pretzels. So I went online and found this recipe.
It came from the Food Network Kitchen.
The pretzels are really easy to make. Just make sure your yeast foams up when you add the liquid to it. I went through 2 packets of yeast before I decided to buy a new 3 pack.
The date on the first pack had an expiration date of 2018 but the yeast was dead.
Anyway once I got the new package it went well.
These pretzels are so good you'll freak out.
Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 package active dry yeast
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened, plus more for greasing the bowl
1 teaspoon fine salt
13 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons coarse salt.
Making the pretzels:
Warm the milk in a saucepan until it's about 110 degrees.
Pour it into a medium bowl and add the yeast. Let it sit for about
5 to 10 minutes. (it should look foamy).
At this point if the yeast isn't getting foamy, dump it and start over.
Maybe the milk was too hot or not hot enough or your yeast is old.
Now continue:
Stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup of flour with a wooden spoon.
Add 2 tablespoons of the softened butter and stir.
Now add 1 1/4 cups flour and the fine salt to make a sticky dough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour
if needed (just a little at a time) until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes.
Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size. About 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
Either grease a large sheet pan or use parchment paper. (paper is better for clean up)
Punch dough to deflate, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
Divide the dough into 6 pieces.
Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into about a 30" rope.
Form into a pretzel shape. (take the 2 ends, twist twice and creat pretzel shape)
Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups of warm water ( a 7x11" baking dish works well for this)
Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet
and sprinkle with the coarse salt.
Bake until golden about 10-12 minutes.
Melt the other 8 tbsp of butter.
When the pretzels are done brush lightly with the butter and let cool on a rack.
