Soft Pretzel Recipe

With this soft pretzel recipe the dough can be made in a bread machine.

1 1/4 cups water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 Tbsp active dry yeast

Glaze:
1 egg white
1 Tbsp water

Toppings:
kosher salt or sesame seeds

Place ingredients in bread pan in order recommended by manufacturer:
Yeast first, then flour, dry ingredients and water or wet ingredients.
Use dough setting (takes about 2 ½ hours).
When setting is complete, remove dough from bread pan.
Punch down and on a lightly floured surface cut the dough into 16 equal pieces.
Roll each piece of dough into a rope about 16" long.
Shape each rope into a pretzel. (Cross the ends of the rope to make a loop; twist the crossed ends once and fold across the loop.)
Place the pretzels on a greased baking sheet 1 1/2" apart. Brush with combined egg white and water.
Sprinkle with salt or sesame seeds.
Bake in preheated 375 degree (F) oven for 15 to 20 minutes
or until gold brown.
Makes 16 pretzels.

The hardest part of this recipe is actually making the pretzel. The dough is extremely elastic. When you try to roll the dough into a long rope, it has a tendency to contract back into a fat sausage shape when you let go!

These are not as good as the real German pretzels we used to buy from the vendors on the streets in Europe, but it's the best recipe I've found so far!

I just made a batch and they do taste really great! I didn't have alot of luck getting them shaped like pretzels, but I am sure that will come with practice (and not trying to work on anything from the Challenges forum at the same time I am trying to shape pretzels ).

Still, the odd shape didn't detract from the taste. I know this is a recipe I will be using often.

I'm going to try them tomorrow if i get a chance but I'll have to see what the pretzel shape is! I sort of have an idea but we don't have them much over here so I'll check. Thanks MotherGoose!

(just found a picture of them ... NOW I remember! )

Maybe I'll give them a try! But I must say, babymoo...twisting pretzels whilst responding to the chains! It kinda makes me wonder what other things folks can do while they're participating here! My goodness! I was having a hard enough time trying to visualise Mother Goose's directions for pretzel twisting! Maybe there's a website for that........how to twist the perfect pretzel! I can only say I tried the bagel recipe from my recipe book that came with the breadmaker! It was a hoot! I had these little, deformed, pathetic boogels.....but they were perfectly cooked and edible!

Why, would you believe there is a website! it has a differnt recipe so skip over that and just look at the pictures.

Recipes from a German Grandmother

I've also been known to paint my nails or work on cross stitch projects while here at FT, but trying to twist pretzels was by far the most adventurous thing I have done while here at FT.

I will have to read the website about how to twist pretzels before I try it again.

Cripes! It took me forever, and I should be in bed, but if you want to see a clip for twisting the perfect pretzel, go to this site...
http://www.sturgispretzel.com/Chef_Home.htm#Anchor-Want-49575

About half way down the page there is a link to "show me how to twist"...It gives a cute little animation that makes it rather clear(er)!

Night all! ~Lea

That's where I went wrong! I was skipping the twist before I folded it over and crimped it. I was trying to just pinch the middle part together after I had the rest together. Thanks for the link to the site!

Goodnight! I wish I could master the art of getting myself to bed at a decent time! I haven't been able to do that since I found this place.

I made them last night and they are so good! Probably not quite the prettiest looking pretzles ever, but the tastiest! Just a question, and excuse my ignorance, but are you supposed to just eat them as is (and let me just say that that is nice enough) or cut them and put in cheese or other fillings?

They are meant to be eaten "as is" but I guess there is no law about adding fillings so go for it!

Bringing this up near the top so it's esier to find for the next time I make them. Made them today again and they are soooooo yummy!

If you haven't done them yet, pull out the bread maker gathering dust in the cupboard and give them a try!

It's funny you should bring this topic up again Copago. I'd forgotten all about it. However, I'll now add a "P.S."

A pretzel place (called Wetzel's Pretzels) has opened up near us. I was chatting to the girl behind the counter about how I made my own occasionally since you couldn't buy them before Wetzel's came. I also mentioned how hard they were to shape. She said the secret was to let the dough rest for about 45 minutes before shaping. I haven't tried this tip yet as I have been too busy to mess about with cooking anything, let alone pretzels, but I intend to fairly soon.