Soft Pretzels For The Win!

I was just kind of sitting around after making dinner at 5:00pm and then I thought to myself I really want a pretzel. I wanted a yummy soft pretzel, you know you can't find soft pretzels everywhere. I have fond memories of being a mall rat and buying those little cinnamon pretzel nuggets from the food court as I waited to go into Hot Topic or something. This was my first time ever attempting to bake pretzels but they were actually pretty simple. I will definitely bake these again in the future, and it takes less time to make these than let's say eclairs. Baking these takes about 15 minutes and the longest time it took was about an hour to proof the dough.  So here's how they turned out, I did make your traditional salted soft pretzels and then two cinnamon sugar soft pretzels as well as some cinnamon sugar soft pretzel nuggets.

delicious pretzels

So Here's what you will need

Soft Pretzels

• 4 1/2 cups of Flour
• 1 tablespoon of Sugar
• 1 tablespoon of Salt
• 2 tablespoons of Oil
• 1 envelope of fast active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup of Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 of warm Water
• 2 eggs beaten
• water for boiling
• coarse salt for topping
• cinnamon + sugar for topping

all the ingredients for the pretzel dough

First start by mixing the warm water, salt, and sugar together in a bowl.

add the sugar + salt into the water

Now add in your yeast and let it sit for at least 5 minutes so your yeast can bloom. ***make sure your water is warm not super hot.... If it's too hot it will kill your yeast***

pour in the envelope of yeast

let the yeast bloom for 5 minutes

this is what it looks like after it blooms

Now add this to your flour

add in your 2 tablespoons of oil

Mix till a dough forms. I just mixed it with my hands which is super fun.

roll it into a big ball of dough

Now take 1 tablespoon of oil and grease the bowl.

now place the dough in the bowl and cover with cling wrap.

Let the dough proof for about one hour.

preheat your oven to 450F

Take your dough out and cut it into 8 pieces.

Now roll each piece into a rope and twist into your traditional pretzel shape.

Ok this was the first time making a pretzel shape

Keep doing that until you use all your dough. I also cut some dough into little nuggets.

Now pour the baking soda into a pot of water and boil.

when you pour in the baking soda it will fizz up, science right?

When the water+baking soda comes to a boil and place one pretzel in the water and boil 30 seconds on each side.

boil it for 30 seconds on each side

Place on a silicon baking sheet, or parchement paper

after being boiled

Now brush the beaten egg on each pretzel

brush on the egg wash

after brushing on the egg

add the coarse salt all over your pretzel (don't put it on the ones you are reserveing for cinnamon sugar)

I didn't even use all of this salt, This is some kind of coarse mediterranean sea salt (it's pretty yummy)

Now bake at 400F for about 10-15 minutes until brown (you know what pretzels look like)

Look how brown they are (thanks eggs)

Take them out of the oven and place them on a cooling rack

For the first time twisting up pretzels I think they look great

As far as the cinnamon sugar nuggets and pretzels and I melted butter and tossed them in the cinnamon sugar

Cinnamon+ Sugar

Little cinnamon sugar pretzel nuggets

ok I went a little crazy with the butter and cinnamon and sugar that the holes on the pretzel got filled. 

here are the regular pretzel ones

Ready for some mustard

look at that salt ya'll

you can pretend you are at a ball game

ready for game days.....

They taste pretty yummy, and they are great with mustard.