soft pretzels.

well friends, i've been raving for long enough without sharing the love with you all. it's finally time to let you in on all my soft pretzel secrets so that you too can participate in the epic-ness that is super sexy soft pretzel wednesdays. the reason it has taken 5 weeks for me to share this with you is because it took me 5 tries to get the recipe perfect. but let me assure you, friends, that is in fact perfect. 
don't question me on this one.

ingredients

soft pretzels:

1 ½ cups warm water

2 ¼ tsp. yeast (1 package)

1 tsp. oil

1 tsp. honey

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. sugar

4 cups flour

½ cup baking soda

1 egg, beaten

coarse salt

cheese sauce:

velveeta cheese

black pepper

greek seasoning

photography by kelli

1. mix water, yeast, oil, honey, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. cool tip: pour the oil first, then use the same tsp. for the honey and the honey won't stick. by the time you'v added all the ingredients, the yeast should have gotten a little foamy.

2. add 4 cups of flour and mix with a large spoon until dough is thick. then use your hands to begin kneading the dough. i usually take the dough out of the bowl and knead for about 10 minutes, adding a little bit of flour as needed so that dough isn't too sticky. roll into a ball. about now is when you should get a big pot of water boiling on the stove.

3. cut the dough into 8 pieces using a serrated knife. i just cut it right through like a pizza--all the way down the middle, and then each piece in half two more times. math and geometry and stuff.

4. this is the fun part! (and the part that i'm worst at...) roll out each piece of dough into a long snake and twist it into a pretzel shape. lyss is the pro at this, so she usually makes mine for me. #realtalk: my pretzels are horrifically ugly. lyss says it's best to roll the dough inside-out, so that when you press the ends together, they stick and the pretzel keeps its shape. 

5. this is the hardest part. once you have your pretzels shaped, pour ½ cup baking soda into your boiling pot of water. using a large spatula (or two, if you're being extra careful) lower one pretzel at a time into the boiling water. let it sit for 30 seconds, and then carefully lift it out of the water onto a pan covered with parchment paper. be careful with this step!!! if you're not super careful in lowering and lifting the pretzels in and out of the water, they will fall apart and lose their beautiful pretzel shape.

6. after your pretzels are all boiled and laid out on cookie sheets, rub the top of each one with beaten egg. as you can see in the pictures, we usually use a folded napkin to do this, because we are domestic college students and stuff. except i just recently purchased a basting brush and it was an awesome gift to myself, so pretzel night just got a little classier, folks. after the pretzels are egg-washed, sprinkle them with coarse salt. i just use sea salt and i use it generously.

7. bake at 375° for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. basically these are going to come out looking like pure heaven, and you might not be able to handle it. it's okay. i've been there.

8. while the pretzels are baking, i make the cheese sauce. i slice up a chunk about 2 inches thick of velveeta cheese, add a few Tbs of milk, and heat on low in a sauce pan. once the sauce is all melted together, i add a dash of black pepper and greek seasoning. most people don't have greek seasoning, but i'm gonna tell you right now that its the secret ingredient in this cheese sauce. i'm 100% convinced that greek seasoning can fix almost every culinary disaster there is. 

9. eat up!



i'm so happy i finally get to share this with you guys! super sexy soft pretzel wednesday nights have been the highlight of my weeks for the past month, and we all know how much i love sharing what i love with everyone else. so make some pretzels this wednesday and tweet me with the pics so i can be a part of your super sexy soft pretzel wednesday too!