Hot Pretzel Recipe!
Make your own hot pretzels. (Totally worth it!)
Someday I will publish a True North cookbook. But today is not that day. One of the headline recipes would be, of course, Roderick’s pretzels. His would have a sourdough base, though. So I guess this recipe is for Sarina’s (Easy Peasy) Pretzels.
This is a very unfussy recipe. I’d forgotten how lovely it is until my 17yo son asked me to make them with him over New Year’s. They were divine, as always, and the family ate them like seagulls at the beach.
So let’s do this!
Ingredients:
1 cup / 240g warm tap water (see instructions)
1 tablespoon / 12g granulated sugar
1 packet or 2.5 teaspoons or 8-9g instant or active dry yeast
2.75 cups or 330g bread flour or all purpose flour. (I use King Arthur all-purpose because it’s a Vermont company and baking snobs like it.)
1 teaspoon or 5g kosher salt
Vegetable oil for bowl
1/4 cup or 55g baking soda (for boiling step)
Pretzel salt (or use kosher salt in a pinch)
Optional: Everything topping. (I love this but my 17yo son is a purist and he thinks this is blasphemy.)
Instructions:
Turn on the warm water tap, and using a cooking thermometer, get the water to between 105-115 f, or 40-46 c. If you don’t have a cooking thermometer, use water that is a warm hand-washing temp. Not scorching, but not cool.
Measure the cup of water and pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, you’ll mix this by hand with a wooden spoon, and then use your hands to gather the dough into a ball.)
Add the sugar to the water. Then sprinkle the yeast on top of the water.
Pour in the flour and sprinkle in the salt. Put the bowl into the mixer and turn it on to a very slow setting. Stop to scrape the sides if necessary.
After the dough starts to come together, turn up the speed a little and let it knead for a few minutes, until the dough is nice and smooth. Turn it out onto a Silpat or another surface and use your hands to knead a little further, until the dough is elastic and smooth. Form the dough into a ball.
Coat a bowl with oil, put the dough ball inside, cover with a damp towel and let it rise for about an hour until it’s doubled in size.
Okay, here comes the fun part! Cut the dough into 8 pieces. Roll them out into snakes, like you did with play-doh in preschool. when the snakes are as long as a sheet of paper, form the pretzel like this: hold each end and make a “smile” shape on the table. Cross the ends down one at a time to meet the smile. If the ends don’t want to stick to the smile, dab some water on your finger and use it as glue.
Let the pretzels rest while you preheat your oven to 425 f or 220 c. and set a pot of water on the stove to boil.
Place a sheet of parchment on a baking tray (or oil a tray.) Now it’s time to boil!
Dump the baking soda into the boiling water, and it will bubble like an angry witch’s cauldron.
Carefully lower each pretzel into the water, maybe two at a time, and boil for one minute. Flip and boil for an additional minute. Place the boiled pretzel onto the prepared pan, and sprinkle with salt or “everything” seasoning.
When all eight pretzels are boiled and ready to go, and your oven is hot, bake for 10-12 minutes, or until nicely browned.
Eat after 100% cool. Just kidding! You won’t last that long.
Love, Sarina
This is what happens when you ask a teen a question. You don’t always get the response you’re looking for.
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