Homemade Pretzels

mmmmm...I can just smell the homemade pretzels. Actually what I smell right now are freshly baked brownies (don't worry, you'll get a post about them this week). But very recently I did smell and taste fresh out-of-the-oven, homemade pretzels and let me tell you, they were delicious!

I am not the biggest fan of Alton Brown (sorry Ben and those of you who love him). While watching his show, "Good Eats", I have found myself saying,"come on, Alton, get on with it. Stop these silly side shows and show me how to cook!" Some people like that though. Nonetheless, he does know what he's talking about and he is a great cook! Ben and I got the recipe for the homemade pretzels from Alton and it is definitely one we will be using again.

Most of the ingredients are things that you'll already have, so no extra trip to the store!

1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 package active dry yeast

22 oz. all-purpose (about 4 1/2 cups)

2 oz. melted butter

vegetable oil, for pan

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda

1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

The above picture is Ben rolling out the dough. This is the hardest part, because the dough would not stay stretched out (too elastic). Ben started adding a little flour to it which seemed to work. It's supposed to be 24 inches long before you start twisting and it is easier to make the pretzel shape if you can get it that long. As you can tell, we didn't do any fancy twists in the middle, because we're just pretzel beginners (below picture). Next time, though!

We made salted pretzels and cinnamon/sugar pretzels. One tip would be to wait to put the cinnamon on until they are almost done baking, because the cinnamon did not have as much taste when we put it on before it went into the oven. Plus they look somewhat burned and that's just not very cute.

These are a great snack and if you're a fan of The Office you know that you can add just about any topping, just don't cut in line in front of Stanley.