What's a good pretzel recipe?

Question

My birthday party's coming up, and I thought it would fun for all my friends to make their own pretzels for dinner that night. But I've never made pretzels on my own before- what's a good recipe? Thanks :-)

Answer 1

Soft Pretzels

Cooking oil spray ( like Pam) for the baking sheets
1 1/3 cups of warm water
1 package of dry active yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of table salt
3 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of water
2 tablespoons of coarse salt
What you do:

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray the 2 baking sheets with the cooking oil. Pour the warm water into a large mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over the water and let standfor about 5 minutes. Stir until completely dissolved.
Add sugar, table salt, and 1 cup of flour; stir until blended. Add 2 more cups of flour a 1/2 cup at a time, stirring to blend after each addition. The dough should be well blended.
Sprinkle some flour over a clean kitchen surface or board. Turn the dough onto the floured surface. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, sprinkling with flour if the dough is sticky.
Pull the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll 1 piece into a rope about 15 inches or any length you desire, depending on the size of the heart you want to make. Put the pretzel on a baking sheet and continue with the remaining dough.
Beat the egg in a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon of water. Beat together. Brush the egg wash over each pretzel using a pastry brush. Sprinkle the coarse salt over the pretzels with your finger.
Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool on a baking rack before serving.

Answer 2

Pretzels Recipe


This will be a 2-part dough that can be made in advance. The cooking procedure will be poaching the pretzels first, and then baking in the oven.


For the sponge: (The sponge is a fermentation of the yeast, flour, and water. It will later be fed with the remaining ingredients to form the dough)
1 ounce dried yeast
4 ounces tap water
Bread flour
For the dough:
4 ounces tap water
1 ounce yeast
1/2 ounce sugar
1 ounce vegetable oil
1/2 ounce salt
Bread flour

For the poaching liquid:
1 quart water
1/2 ounce salt
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 cups cornmeal or corn flour
1 egg, beaten with salt and 1 ounce water
Sesame seeds, salt or cracked pepper, for seasoning



For the Sponge:
Dissolve the yeast in the water in a large mixing bowl that will later be the bowl for the mixing machine. Add enough bread flour to create a pancake batter consistency. Lightly cover with plastic and store at room temperature for 4 to 24 hours.
For the dough:
In the bowl of an electric mixer that is fitted with a dough hook, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the sponge from above. Add sugar, vegetable oil and salt. Start the mixer and add flour, 2 cups at a time, until the mixture forms a dough ball that doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl and starts to climb up the dough hook. Transfer to a lightly floured table and knead for 10 minutes by hand. Cover and let the dough rest and proof to twice the size, about 45 minutes.

Push the dough back down, and form pretzel sticks by rolling the dough thin with your hands. Twist into pretzel shapes. Line the finished pretzels on a baking sheet so they do not touch or stick together. Allow them to proof at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

For the poaching liquid:
Bring the water to a medium boil. Add the salt and baking soda. Poach the pretzels for 30 seconds on each side and transfer to a baking dish lined with cornmeal. Brush with the egg wash and season with desired ingredients (sesame seeds, salt, cracked pepper). Bake until lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Answer 3

New Year's Pretzels

2 c Milk
1/2 c Butter or margarine
2 pkg. Yeast; active, dry
2 t Salt
1/2 c Sugar
7 c Flour; unbleached
2 lg Eggs
1 c Confectioners' sugar
1 x water
1 t Vanilla extract
1/4 c Almonds; chopped

Heat milk & butter until very warm (120-130F). Mix yeast, salt, sugar & 1 cup flour. Slowly beat into warm milk. Beat for 2 minutes. Add eggs & 1 cup of flour. Beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add enough flour to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth & elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hr. Punch dough down & let rise again until doubled. (1 hour more).

Divide dough in half. Shape pretzel as follows: Roll dough into a rope about 30"long & 1 1/2" in diameter. Cross the ends leaving a large loop in the center. Flip loop back onto crossed ends to form a pretzel. Repeat with remaining dough. Place pretzels on greased baking sheets. Let rise 15 minutes more. Bake at 375F, 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Mix confectioners' sugar, water & vanilla to form a thin icing. Spread icing on pretzels & sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Makes 2 large pretzels.

Answer 4

DO NOT substitue butter for shortening! It will ruin the chocolate, making it thick and crumbly almost. Just melt some chocolate chips in the microwave. Start with it for a minute, stir, then every thirty seconds. Dip the pretzels and put on wax paper. You can put a little parafin wax in the chocolate to make it shiny. Choclate Bark is cheap and still tastes good. Melt it in the microwave too. Good luck!

Answer 5

chocolate covered pretzels. Melt chocolate chips and dip pretzels.