Big Soft Pretzels

These pretzels are honestly out of this world. I swear, I'll never buy them again from the store. I had a batch of about 12 of them, maybe? And they were gone in a couple hours. The ones on the left were lightly salted, and the ones on the right were cinnamon sugar. For the salted ones, we dipped them in mustard and nacho cheese, and I made just a regular powdered sugar/milk glaze, and they were absolutely delicious. Honestly just as good, or better than Auntie Anne's.

Big Soft Pretzels

adapted from www.allrecipes.com

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
salt or cinnamon-sugar, for topping

Dissolve the 1 teaspoon sugar in the 1 1/4 cup warm water. Add the yeast and let it sit and activate for maybe 5-10 minutes, until it starts to foam. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center, and add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add a little bit (up to 2 tablespoons) of water. Knead the 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. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water. 

When risen, turn the 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 greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt or the cinnamon-sugar. 

Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

Watch the bottoms, they cook very fast!

I promise you'll love them.

Next time I think I'll brush melted butter on them.

I'm drooling.