Soft Pretzels

I suck at making bread.

Yeast and I just don’t get along very well.

But things changed. Boy, did they change. And I’m damn glad it did.

I saw these soft pretzels on sugarlaws. The recipe only made 6. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll just give it a try. I won’t be throwing out too much food if it fails anyway.

These were the best things I had in a while. I made them a second time yesterday and yes, the first time wasn’t an illusion. These soft pretzels are real! They’re truly good! And failproof!!

Here’s the recipe from sugarlaws.

INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp active dry yeast (I used instant)
Pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt

DIRECTIONS:
Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy colored. Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (a few minutes, not even 5). Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times. Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with silpat/parchment or cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.

Dissolve baking soda into hot water and stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all the pretzels with sea salt, to your preference. Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned.

Makes six medium-sized pretzels, but please double or triple this recipe, because they disappear quickly!