Alton Brown's Soft (Or Crunchy) Pretzels

Name: Alton Brown's Soft (Or Crunchy) Pretzels
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 8 pretzels
Ingredients: 2 ounces butter, melted; 1 1/2 cups water, heated to 115 degrees Farenheit; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 2 1/2 teaspoons fast rising yeast or 1 (7 1/4 g) packet fast rising yeast; 22 ounces all-purpose flour or 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 10 cups boiling water; 2/3 cup baking soda; 1 egg, beaten; 1/4 cup kosher salt or 1/4 cup pretzel salt

Submitted by DeSouter

"Soft and traditional, or rolled into rods, Alton Brown's recipes will delight you."

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Ready In:: 1hr 15mins
Ingredients:: 10
Yields:: 8 pretzels

ingredients

2 ounces butter, melted
1 ¹⁄₂ cups water, heated to 115 degrees Farenheit
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoons fast rising yeast or (7 1/4 g) packet fast rising yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour or 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
10 cups boiling water
²⁄₃ cup baking soda
1 egg, beaten
¹⁄₄ cup kosher salt or 1/4 cup pretzel salt

directions

Combine yeast, sugar, salt and water.
In the bowl of a large mixer with the hook attachment, combine flour, dry ingredients and melted butter Mix until all ingredients come together. Knead on medium speed for 4-5 minutes. Remove dough from bowl and form into ball. Lightly spray or oil bowl, return dough and cover with a tea towel for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit. Line two large baking sheets with parchment.
Separate dough into 8 equally sized pieces.
In a large, wide pan, combine 10 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add 2/3 cups of baking soda.
Lightly wet hands to help with formation of "logs" of dough. Roll each piece into a 24" piece. Form into a traditional pretzel shape - or any shape you wish. Place onto baking sheet and cover with a barely damp towel.
Two at a time, "bathe" pretzels in the water and baking soda mixture for 30 seconds and remove back to the baking sheets.
Beat an egg and brush each "boiled" pretzel with the glaze, then sprinkle with salt.
Bake for 14-15 minutes, until mahogany brown. Remove and cool. Delicious hot, warm or cooled.
For crunchy pretzel rods, use the same ingredients EXCEPT increase the water in the dough to 1 3/4 cups and ELIMINATE the butter. Proceed as above but cut risen dough into 36 equal pieces and roll out to 14" and boil in plain water, then bake for 15 minutes.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

DeSouter

United States

Being a born and bred New Yorker with lots of varied ethnic food influences growing up, you can find me enjoying anything from Bloodwurst to Chicken Jahlfrezi to PBJs with fresh-ground honey roasted peanut butter and yummy homemade strawberry jam, and don't forget my friend Anna's mother's Pomodoro Sauce (via Bari, Italy). When it comes to eating and cooking, many native New Yorkers seem to be of whatever background that is on their plate at the moment. I notice that a good number of Zaarites list "pet peeves" here. Many list whiny people as their peeve. Hey...I live in NYC where almost EVERYONE whines and complains, so I don't notice anymore. What burns my biscuits is seeing recipes that call for some really funky ingredients like Kraft (cough cough) Parmesan cheese in the green can and chicken from a can. I had never even heard of chicken in CAN(???) until last year. Get the best quality ingredients you purse will allow. That includes spices. Those jars of spices that sell for 99 cents are no bargain if you can afford something better. Do yourself a favor and if possible, go and explore any ethnic food markets in your area. They have the most wonderful spices and herbs and they are usually priced well. And you'll find so many other goodies you'd never have even known about. (I know this isn't possible for everyone, but then there's always the internet) Sorry, I am the product of an "ingredient snob" father and I just can't help having inherited that gene to a certain extent. And again, I'm a New Yawka...we are SLIGHTLY opinionated. You're reading about the person who drives (I kid you not) 3 hours upstate and 3 hours back just to get THE sausage I need for my Thanksgiving stuffing. So call me fanatical. I am a rather good baker and for a short time I had my own dessert biz...until I found out how hard it can be to work for yourself. So I went back to working as an Art Editor in publishing.

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