Pretzels

Ingredients
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water
5 cups all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
¼ cup lye^* or ½ cup of baking soda
1 tablespoon oil
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup kosher salt for sprinkling on pretzels

Directions
Dissolve yeast in warm water (110 degrees F)
Add a 1 teaspoon of sugar to prime yeast
Mix flour, ½ cup sugar, and salt.
Add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough.
Add more water if mixture is too dry 1 teaspoon at a time.
Knead dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes.
Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Divide dough into 10 equal parts
Roll into logs about 12" long
Allow logs to sit for 10 minutes and then stretch them to 24" or as long as you can without breaking them
Form the logs into the classic pretzel shape
Dip formed pretzels into a solution of 5 cups of warm water and ¼ cup of lye
or substitute ½ cup baking soda instead of lye
Important Note^* Lye is the principal ingredient found in commercial drain cleaner such as Drano. If you opt for dipping in lye, wear rubber gloves and be very careful

Place the dipped pretzels on parchment covered cookie sheets
Sprinkle pretzels with kosher salt
Place cookie sheets in oven preheated to 450 degrees F
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown

Return to the Fullbean Recipes Main Page