All Twisted Up

I chanced upon this Tasty video about After School Snacks Anyone Can Make the other night that included a recipe for pretzels,  Despite the long WFH hours, or more likely because of the long WFH hours, I decided to bake a batch last night.

I had written out keywords on the back of a Coles receipt to follow but essentially the instructions would have read something like this:

    (1 1/2 c warm water + 1 T sugar +  1 T salt) + 1 1/4 t yeast   - combine and let rest 5 mins

    4 1/2 c flour +  + 2 T oil + yeast mixture                                  - knead about 10 mins

    let rest in oiled bowl for 1 hour then divide into 8                   (I divided it into 12)

    roll into long rope then shape each piece into pretzels             - lay out on silicon mat

    boil water then add 2/3 c baking soda                                     (i used 1/2 c of baking soda)

    dip each pretzel into the boiling water, flip over once              about 20-30 secs

    brush pretzel tops with beaten egg (eggwash)                          sprinkle with salt

    bake in 400F oven for 10-12 minutes 

I usually just dip the uncooked pretzels in a pan with hot water and baking soda but this recipe called for the mixture to be boiling.   This is the first time I have tried it with boiling water and they turned out quite nicely.   Seems the baking soda bath is for the puff, the crust, and the browning.

It works for me.  As you can see, there is already one pretzel missing before I was able to take a picture.