Soft Pretzels

I made these as a Super Bowl snack last week. I haven’t made much dough before so I was pretty happy with how they turned out although I must say they were at their best still warm on the day they were made.

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 ½ cups warm water
5 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
¼ cup baking soda
2 cups hot water
¼ cup sea salt salt, for topping

In a bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water.  Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and salt.  Make a well in the centre add the oil and yeast mixture.  Mix and form into a dough (if the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water).  You can use your hands or a freestanding mixer if you have a dough hook.
Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes by hand and about 3 minutes if using a mixer.
Spray a large bowl with a tin coating of oil, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place like a hot water cupboard until doubled in size, this step can take up to an hour.
While your dough is rising preheat your oven to 220°C.  In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water. Line two baking trays with wax/baking paper.
Once your dough has risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a a baking tray lined with wax/baking paper.  Sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until browned.

I think I enjoyed the snacks more than the game itself – Shane is a Super Bowl big fan so I wanted to do something nice for him after all his hard work moving us from one city to another. Along with the pretzels we enjoyed Melissa’s chicken meatballs, some mac n cheese bites and American beer.