Homemade Pretzels!

How to start this....Who doesn't love pretzels?! No one. These are great, because you can sprinkle anything on them; dip, dunk, slather them in a gazillion different sauces! What is not to like about that!? They were actually requested when we out the other night with another couple and they said "You should make these" (because we ordered pretzels) and I said "Great idea!". And before my other friend, Lisa (hhey, Lisa!), said at one of our Pinterest Parties that they were really easy to make and she makes them all the time, so I knew it would a doable challenge!

1. First you need 1½ cups warm water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 envelope dry active yeast. (This is my first time cooking with yeast!!!). Mix everything in the bowl with the warm water and wait 5 minutes while the yeast activates. (Bottom left bowl.). While you wait mix together the other ingredients:  4½ cups flour and 4 tablespoons butter. If you have a mixer use the dough hook, if not it'll be ok but just look ugly like mine.

2. So this is after the kneading. Squish it into a ball. Then get another bowl (or wash the one you were using) and rub vegetable oil on the inside and put the ball of dough back in. Let it sit for 60mins with a cloth over the top. (EDIT: Ok so I just made some more...I know its the NEXT day, but I wanted to try it with Wheat Flour? I think I didnt knead enough this time. Hence the ugly. So just keep kneading until its tacky and not sticky! It should take about 10mins by hand, you're welcome for the work-out!)

3. After 60 minutes you can see its grown! It might not look like much bigger, well mine didn't, but when you go to pick it up you can tell its not dense and more airy now.

4. Divide your dough into 8 equal pieces. Take one piece and roll it out into a snake (thin and about 2 feet long). Curl up on side. Then curl up the other side and have it go over the top of the first curl. There's your pretzel! I rolled out the last two but didn't form a pretzel but I cut them into about 1 in pieces and made pretzel bites! (Actually my cute little hubby did that part for me :) Preheat oven to 450°f. 

5. Get a pot, fill with water, sprinkle in a cup of baking soda (carefully so it doesn't fizz over!), bring to a boil. Then drop the pretzels into the water and let them float for 30 seconds on each side.  Have ready a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to put them on after. - I was super rushed making these towards the end and didn't get a picture of them on the parchment paper, but just lay them out, then mix in a little cup, 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water, and brush that over them, and sprinkle with salt. They will go into the oven and bake for 14 minutes!

Yum! All done! I didn't have pretzel salt, so you cant see the salt I put on, and I probably didn't use enough salt because I'm very anti-salt. But they turned out so cute!

 ♥ Served with mustard is my favorite! ♥

The bites! This is def one of those recipes that seems difficult and then once you do it, doing it again would be pretty easy! My husband kept saying "wow, they taste pretzels!" yeah, duh babe!



INGREDIENTS: flour, sugar, salt, dry active yeast, butter, veg oil, water, baking soda, egg, pretzel salt