About the Recipe
Traditional soft pretzels, easier than you think. Chewy on the inside and that classic salty, savoury taste on the outside. Have them traditional or cover them with cheese and jalapeños.
Ingredients
1.5 cups 355g warm water
2.5 tsp 9g dry active yeast
1 tbsp 15g brown sugar
1 tbsp 20g unsalted butter
1 tsp 4g salt
3.5 560g cups plain flour
Flake salt to top
Alkaline Bath
2L 2kg water
0.5 150g cup baking soda
Method
1. Add yeast and sugar to temped water and mix, leave to activate for up to 5 minutes.
2. Once the yeast has activated add melted (slightly cooled) butter and salt to the yeast mixture and stir to combine.
3. Add yeast mixture to a bowl along with 3 cups of flour.
4. Mix on low for 3 minutes or until the flour disappears.
5. Scrape the bowl and hook then add 1/4 of a cup of flour to start firming up the dough.
6. Continue step 5. until the flour is combined and the dough is only slightly sticky to the touch.
7. You can continue to mix in the stand mixer but you will have to interrupt the mixing as this recipe will only make enough dough that will spin on the hook and not actually knead the dough. For the beat results dump the dough on your bench and knead for 5 minutes.
8. Place dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl at least twice the size of the dough to allow it to double in size.
9. Cover bowl and place in a warm space for 30 minutes.
10. Dump the risen dough on your bench and massage the air out and cut the dough into 75g portions.
11. With your palms roll out the dough ball into a thin rope approximately 60cm in length.
12. Bring a large pot of water approximately 2 liters to the boil.
13. Pick the two ends of the rolled dough and cross over at the 15cm ends and then twist / loop again. Now bring the two ends down to the bottom center of the dough and pinch connect.
14. Now the water is boiling reduce to a gentle simmer and add the baking soda (be careful as the water may fizz over).
15. Drop the pretzels into the alkaline bath for no longer than 30 seconds.
16. With a wide slotted spoon fish the pretzel out and rest / dry on some paper towel .
17. Within 15 seconds of the pretzel being on the paper towel add flake salt or other toppings while they are still sticky.
18. Place the pretzels on a baking tray lined with baking paper and place in a pre heated oven at 200°c for 15 minutes.
19. Retrieve the browned pretzels from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack before devouring.
Note: Storing is tricky as there is quite a bit of moisture in the cooked pretzels, the pretzels are best consumed the day of however you can place back onto the oven for 5 minutes to revive.