Hot Buttered Pretzels

By anonsouthernbell

Pretzels are available crisp and hard from your grocery; bagel-like and chew from a street vendor; or, if you're lucky and in the right place, soft, buttery, and tender, usually at the mall or airport. This recipe is for mall-type pretzels.

Add some baking soda to the water before baking to give the pretzels a golden brown color.

Ingredients

• Dough:
• 2 1/2 c (10 1/2 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tea salt
• 1 tea sugar
• 2 1/4 tea instant yeast
• 7/8 to 1 c (7-8 oz) warm water*
• Use the greater amount in the winter, the lesser amount in the summer, and somewhere in between in the spring and fall. Your goal is a soft dough.
• Topping:
• 1/2 c (4 oz) warm water
• 1 tea sugar
• Coarse, kosher or pretzel salt (optional)
• 3 tabl (1 1/2 oz) salted butter, melted

Preparation

Step 1

Place all the dough ingredients in a bowl and beat until well combined. Knead the dough, by hand or mixer, for about 5 minutes, until it's soft, smooth and quite slack. Dust the dough with flour (to keep it from sticking) and place it in a plastic bag; close the bag and leaving room for the dough to expand, and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the over to 500F. Prepare two baking sheets by spraying them with vegetable oil spray or lining them with parchment paper.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and divide it into 8 equal pieces (about 2 1/4 oz each). Let the pieces rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

Roll each piece of dough into a long thin rope (around 28 inches) and twist each rope into a pretzel.* Dip the pretzels in the warm water mixed with 1 tea sugar, and place them on the baking sheets. Sprinkle them lightly with the salt. Let them rest, uncovered for 10 minutes.

Bake the pretzels for 8-9 minutes, until they're golden brown, reversing the baking sheets halfway through.

Remove the pretzels from the oven and brush them thoroughly with the melted butter. Keep brushing the butter on until you've used it all; it may seem like a lot, but that's what gives these pretzels their ethereal taste. Eat the pretzels warm or reheat them in an oven or microwave.

Variation:
Soft Breadsticks - For soft, fat, chewy breadsticks, prepare the pretzel dough up through its first rest. divide it into 24 pieces and shape each piece into an 8-10 in log. Transfer the breadsticks to a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with warm water, and sprinkle with salt (for salt sticks) or seeds. let rest and bake as directed in the preceding pretzel recipe.

*For pretzel shaping:
Form the rope of dough into a circle, leaving 4 in free on each end of the rope. Twist these ends around ea other, and fold the twist down the middle of the circle. Press the ends of the dough to the outside of the ring to make the pretzel shape.