Soft Pretzels

I made pretzels!

I have seen homemade pretzel recipes online, I came across this one that was just too easy not to try.

Soft Pretzels

Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

1 and 1/2 cups warm water
1 packet (2 and 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
4 – 4.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour (for less guilt) or use all purpose flour (for softer pretzels)
1 large egg
course sea salt for sprinkling
cinnamon + raw sugar (mix together about a teaspoon of cinnamon with 1/4 cup sugar)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Dissolve yeast in the 1 1/2 cups warm water; stir to mix for about a minute. Add the salt and sugar and mix in. Add flour 1 cup at a time, stirring in between; it will get challenging to stir. Add enough flour until dough is no longer sticky; once it fairly elastic and bounces back when poked, it’s ready for kneading.

Whisk the egg a little bit in a shallow pan; set aside.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface; knead for 5 minutes and shape into a ball. Divide this ball into 8 pieces (first in half, then those pieces in half, then again) to get about 1/3 cups’ worth of dough.

Make ropes about 20 inches long from each dough section. First make a circle with the rope, then twist towards you and press into a pretzel shape. Once you make all your pretzels, dip each into the egg, and then transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt or cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake 5 minutes, then broil 5 minutes to brown the tops; watch carefully for burning.

Let cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Unfortunately, I forgot to broil the pretzels and instead baked them for 10 minutes. So they weren’t very brown on top.

But they did get a lovely golden brown underneath!

And the texture, delicious.

Both the salted and the cinnamon sugar were sooo good, especially warm. Using raw sugar for the cinnamon versions was perfect for a satisfying crunch among the bites of soft dough.

I really wish I had broiled them! They are so… unbrowned. Next time. They’re too easy and good not to try again!

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