Homemade Pretzels

By bsterna

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 pkg dry active yeast
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 lg egg yolk, beaten with 1 Tbs water
• Pretzel salt (or kosher salt), for topping

Details

Servings 16

Preparation

Step 1

- Combine the warm water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast is foamy and begins to smell of yeast.
– Add the flour and butter to the yeast mixture. Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer and, on medium-low speed, combine the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and appears shiny, roughly 4 to 5 minutes.
– Spray a large bowl with non-stick spray and place dough in greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Place bowl in a warm area and let dough rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
– Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper with non-stick spray. Set aside.
– In a large pot, bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a roiling boil.
– Place the dough on a greased surface, and divide into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long rope, roughly 12 inches long. Shape the rope into a U shape, cross the ends over each other and fold the twisted ends back onto the bottom of the U. Pinch the dough together to form a seal. Place each shaped pretzel on the parchment lined baking sheet.
– Boil the shaped pretzels, one at a time, in the baking soda water for 30 seconds each. Using a slotted spatula, remove from the water and place it on a drying rack to allow any extra baking soda mixture to drip off.
– Place the boiled pretzels back on the parchment lined baking sheets.
– Brush with beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with pretzel or kosher salt.
– Bake until golden brown, roughly 14 to 15 minutes.
- You could also wrap the pretzels around hot dogs cut in 1/2 to make pretzel dogs. Be sure to pinch the ends to seal the pretzel together. Otherwise, it'll unwrap during boiling.

Serve with ketchup, mustard or cheese.

Makes 16 pretzel dogs.

Yes, I know that this seems like a crazy amount of baking soda, but trust me, Alton has clearly done the math on this one. The baking soda mixture gives the pretzels that perfectly crisp crust that you are looking for.