pretzels

dear blog,

today i made soft pretzels.
and they were amazing.

here's the recipe.
enjoy!

homemade soft pretzels
(recipe from alton brown, but i used a bread machine instead of all the mixing and kneading, etc. so if you don't have a bread machine, just follow the link)

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt (and some for the tops if you want)
1 package active dry yeast
vegetable oil (for rolling them out and for the pan)
10 cups of water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

pour warm water and melted butter into bread machine. add flour, sugar, salt and yeast. set bread machine to dough setting and let her rip (ours takes an hour and a half).

when it's almost done preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. line 2 pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. set aside.

bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in a large pan.

in the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. roll out each piece of dough into a 24 inch rope. make a u shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the u to form the shape of a pretzel. 

place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. be careful because they are still flimsy. 

place on the parchment lined sheets, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with salt. 

bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

they were so good that i devoured 1 and a half before i remembered to take a picture of how beautiful they were... woops.

i'll definitely be making these again... tomorrow.

love,
rochelle