Homemade Soft Pretzels

Do you recall your childhood memories of a pretzel with processed cheese? They were simply the best! You couldn't wait to get your hands on one them pretzels. What a great childhood memory.

Yield: 4 pretzels

INGREDIENTS

warm water 3/4 cups

sugar 1/2 tablespoon

salt 1 teaspoon

active dry yeast 1/2 package

all-purpose flour 2 1/4 cups

butter 1 tablespoon

baking soda 1/3 cup

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

water 5 cups

Vegetable oil 2 teaspoons

Kosher or Pretzel salt

In a pan, dissolve the yeast in a warm water with sugar and salt. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until it foams.

Mix flour, butter in a large bowl to make dough. Mix with hands or with a dough mixer. Remove dough and add oil, then cover it with plastic wrap and allow to rest and rise in a warm place for about an hour.

After dough have doubled in size, divide it into 4 portions. Roll out each piece of dough into rope shape. Hold both ends of the dough and spin it around twice, then lay it down and fold in order to form the shape of a pretzel, press and pinch the edge onto the dough to attach.

make the pretzel bath solution, in a large pan, mix water and baking soda. Set on high heat to boil.

This point you should preheat the oven to 400- 450 degrees

Place the pretzels into the boiling pretzels bath solution one after another for 30 seconds. Remove and arrange the on a greased baking sheet. brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with kosher or pretzel salt.

Bake the pretzels until golden brown. You might want to keep spinning the pan around after few minutes of baking to brown equally on all sides. Finally remove pan and allow to cool at least few minutes before serving, you can brush them with melted butter if desired before serving.