German Style Soft Pretzels

"Delicious."

"The best thing you've ever made."

"You should sell these they're so good!"

"These taste just like those pretzels you buy at a pretzel stand!"

Yes, seriously, those are just a few of the comments that Mike made after trying one of these soft pretzels!

This month my Secret Recipe Club assignment was Lacy's blog, NYC Eats.  Lacy features restaurant reviews and local (NYC) foodie events as well as recipes on her blog.  I selected a few recipes from her blog and I actually made 2 of them.  I decided to feature the pretzels for this month's reveal because they were so delicious!

One thing I really loved about the pretzels (besides the taste) was the ease of making them.  For this recipe, you don't have to boil a pot of water with baking soda to dip the pretzels in.  Lacy's recipe just had me dip the pretzels in room temperature water, so eliminating the boiling water was a nice surprise.  

I made these pretzels for Mike and I to enjoy for a Friday night movie night.  We love to pop some popcorn, crack open an icy cold drink, and relax on the couch with a good movie.  We got lucky because we enjoyed both popcorn and pretzels!  Plus, for dinner I decided to wrap pretzel dough around a couple hot dogs.  (Allow a couple extra minutes of baking time if you wrap hot dogs.)  Mike is already asking me when I'll make these pretzels again!

German Style Soft Pretzels

Makes 8

Ingredients:
1 cup warm milk (about 110 degrees)
2-1/4 teaspoons yeast
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2-1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons baking soda
coarse sea salt (or pretzel salt)
butter for brushing on top

1.  Pour the warm milk into a large bowl and sprinkle with the yeast.  Let it sit for about 2 minutes.

2.  Mix in the brown sugar and 1 cup of flour.

3.  Melt the 2 Tablespoons of butter and stir into the mixture.

4.  Add the remaining flour and salt.  Mix to form a slightly sticky dough.

5.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth but still slightly sticky.

6.  Shape the dough into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise until the dough doubles (about 1 hour). 

7.  Punch the dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

8.  Divide the dough into 8 pieces.  Roll and stretch each piece into a 20-25 inch rope.

9.  Form each piece into a pretzel shape by forming a U-shape, then holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press lightly onto the bottom of the pretzel.

10.  In a shallow baking dish (or pie tin), dissolve 3 Tablespoons baking soda into 1-1/2 cups water.

11.  Dip each pretzel into the baking soda water and place formed pretzels on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and lightly sprayed with cooking spray. 

12.  Sprinkle pretzels with salt.

13.  Bake pretzels at 450 for 8-10 minutes, until golden.

14.  Remove pretzels from the oven and brush with melted butter while hot.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

*To make pretzel dogs, follow pretzel instructions up to step #8.  Then wrap a dough rope around each hot dog.  Continue with steps #10-14, but bake for 10-12 minutes.

Source:  NYC Eats