soft pretzels

The other night we made homemade soft pretzels. I loved it because everyone could "help" especially with the rolling out part. 

They were really yummy, especially with dipping sauces. I have a few left over and I still want to try rolling one in cinnamon and sugar too. 

(love the little finger pointing in the photo above...)

Mmmmm.... :) 

 So I had copied and pasted this recipe onto my computer when I saw it awhile ago, and I have no idea now where it came from :( But here it is below in all it's copy and pasted glory in case you want to try making them. I'm sure there are lots of other good recipes out there too, and I think they are better the longer and thinner you roll out the dough. Also, I had trouble with my parchment paper smoking in the oven so I wouldn't use that if I make these again. Other than that we loved them!

Auntie Anne’s Pretzel’s Copycat Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast (2 packets)
• 6 Tbsp packed light-brown sugar
• 4 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus an up to an additional 1/2 cup as needed
• 2 tsp fine salt                   
• 2 cups warm water
• coarse salt, to taste
• 6 Tbsp butter, melted
• Dipping sauce for serving, optional*

Directions

• Warm milk in a microwave safe bowl in microwave (or alternately over stove top in a small saucepan) until temperature of milk reaches 110 degrees, about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes on HIGH power. Pour milk along with yeast into the bowl of an electric stand mixer and whisk together until yeast has dissolved, let rest 5 minutes. Add brown sugar, 4 tbsp softened butter, 1 cup flour and 2 tsp fine sea salt to milk mixture and using the whisk attachment, stir until blended. Switch attachment to a dough hook, add remaining 3 1/2 cups flour and kneaded mixture on medium low speed until elastic. Mix in up to an additional 1/2 cup flour, as needed, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper (alternately you could grease them). Punch dough down several times to release any air pockets. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces (the easiest way to do this is to divide the dough in half, then divide the halves into halves then those and into thirds). Cover divided dough loosely with plastic wrap (just to prevent a dry crust from forming on the outside) and roll each piece out into a long, thin rope about 32 - 36 inches long (I found working on a non-floured to very very lightly floured surface worked best, I began with a lightly floured surface and realized it was much harder to get more stretch, plus it was much faster to roll them out when working on a less-no flour surface). Form dough rope into a pretzel shape.
• In a shallow bowl, whisk together baking soda and warm water then fully immerse pretzel into water mixture and allow excess water to drip off (I ended up shaping most of them into the pretzel shape once placing on the cookie sheet rather then doing it twice, I would just fold the rope into halves several times then immerse in water mixture then shape them on cookie sheet). Place on prepared baking sheet, reshape as needed and sprinkle to taste with coarse salt. Repeat this process with remaining dough. Bake pretzels in preheated oven 7 - 11 minutes until golden brown (note that you will likely only be able to cook 6 at a time among the two baking sheets) Remove from oven and brush top and bottom of pretzels with melted butter. Serve warm with optional dipping sauce. Reheat in microwave or in a warm oven once they've cooled, if desired.
• *Dipping sauces I would recommend are yellow mustard, marinara sauce, or honey mustard. For a sweeter option, try with a warm homemade doughnut glaze, caramel sauce or chocolate sauce. Alternately if you want another dessert option, skip the coarse salt step of the recipe and sprinkle instead with lots of cinnamon sugar.

(end copy and pasting)