Soft Pretzels

Every Sunday night I am the lucky guest at a neighborhood dinner party called "Sundays with Mel." On Sundays, it is Melvin's turn to cook dinner, and to not worry so much about healthy (which he and Diane do the other six nights of the week) and he doesn't hold back.

One neighbor always brings a big, beautiful salad. And I often bring an appetizer, or a dessert. And I hate to bring the same thing twice, so during the week, when I'm supposed to be working, (one of) my guilty pleasures is to scroll through my feedly feed of food bloggers, looking for things I want to make.

 This week, Basic Soft Pretzels caught my eye on Pinch of Yum. I've never made pretzels before and just assumed they would be complicated. Au contraire! Could not be simpler.

The recipe says makes 6-8, so I just divided the weight of the dough by 8, and then weighed each bit to make sure they were at least kind of the same size.

The only really fiddly bit is rolling them. That took longer than I thought it would. The recipe doesn't say how long they should be just "long skinny rope." I think mine were about 8 inches or so. Make them longer than you think they should be.

Once you've formed them into reasonable facsimiles of pretzels, you dip them into a baking soda bath, then bake for 12 minutes.

Sprinkle liberally with coarse salt. Although you could also sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if you are truly decadent.

While baking, your house will begin to smell like the mall -- in a good way.  Aunt Annie's pretzels, to be specific. It's a glorious smell.

These were really simple to make. And completely devoured within 10 minutes by five people.

Highly recommend!

Mall-Worthy Soft Prezels

From Pinch of Yum

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Ingredients

For the pretzels

• 1 cup warm milk (110F)
• 1 package instant yeast
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the baking soda bath

• 1/4 cup baking soda whisked into 3-4 cups warm water

Before baking

• 1 egg
• coarse salt

Instructions

Make baking soda solution

  Mix baking soda with 3 1/2 c of water. Set aside.

Make the Dough

Mix warm milk (approx 110 degrees F), yeast, brown sugar, butter and salt.

Stir in the flour by hand until a dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 15 times..

Let the Dough Rise

Lightly oil a bowl and put dough in and turn to coat with oil.

Loosely cover with a cloth or plastic. Set aside in a warm place for an hour to rise.

Baking soda bath

Punch dough down and divide into 8 sections.

Roll into eight ropes approximately 8 inches long.

Fold into pretzels

Dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake

Brush pretzels with the beaten egg and sprinkle with salt.

Or for a sweet pretzel, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

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