In my younger days, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels had just opened up as a novelty store in Ocean City, Maryland. Every Summer my friends and I would spend several weekends at the beach consuming our annual supply of those soft, doughy pretzels. It became like an annual pilgrimage, since that was the only location in the entire state. Nowadays, you can find them just about anywhere…I don’t know about you, but a huge, soft, chewy pretzel beats the crispy kind in my book any day.
This recipe by Alton Brown was quite good, although I did make a few changes to enhance the chewiness of the pretzel. I find that using just all purpose flour does not give you that chewy quality that you find in the authentic kind I had in Germany and Austria, so some bread flour must be added to the dough. This is really up to you, but you can add up to half of the quantity in bread flour, as I did. Alton’s recipe also uses Kosher salt in the dough…I prefer to use regular salt in the dough and leave the coarser salt for the outside. He also uses 1 tablespoon of sugar in the dough, and I decreased that to 2 teaspoons. The last thing I changed was the adding of the melted butter. I did not use this at all. Most traditional recipes do not use butter for pretzel dough because it behaves as a tenderizer in the final product. I wanted to develop that chewy but soft texture reminiscent of my many love affairs with those delicious traditional pretzels abroad.
I decided I was going to make them as traditional as possible without having to worry about multiple fermentations, and although I wanted to boil them first I did not want to use a toxic lye solution…and who really does anyway?
Alton’s suggestion for boiling water with baking soda worked great! By boiling them, you seal in that chewy texture and with the use of just a little beaten egg with water, you ensure that lovely golden exterior.
It is a very basic dough and easy to put together. The quantity I have listed makes 8 good size pretzels.
Allow the dough to rest in between rolling, so that you can achieve the long 24” strands that you need to make the shape, otherwise it will shrink back as you try to roll it out. For the record, everyone loved them and I can proudly say that our regular visits to Auntie Anne’s are a thing of the past…
Soft, Chewy Pretzel’s (makes 8 large pretzels)
1½ cups warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast (I used 20 grams fresh yeast)
22 oz all purpose flour (I used half bread flour)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 oz melted butter (I did not use this)
1 egg plus 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
Pan spray or vegetable oil for parchment
10 cup water
2/3 cups baking soda
1 stick melted butter
1 cup sugar
5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Kosher salt
Combine the water and the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until it has dissolved. Add the flour and sprinkle the salt and sugar on top of this. Using the dough hook or paddle attachment mix on low speed until well combined for about 2 minutes. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. I prefer to do the final mixing by hand, so that I actually fee the texture of the dough changing. Doing it this way, I can also tell if the dough needs a little more water, since the amount of liquid you add will always be affected by your environment. Once it is smooth and pliable, remove the dough from the bowl and place it into another bowl that has been completely coated inside with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Roll the dough around so that it is covered with a little bit of this oil, then cover with plastic wrap and tea towels and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1 ½ hours.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 12” section and allow them to rest for a few minutes covered under plastic wrap. If you try to roll it out into a very long rope right away, it will shrink back…so let it rest like this…
Once it has rested, take each section and roll it into a 24” strand. Make a U-shape with the rope, then crisscross each section, twist once, and attach the dough ends to the base of the pretzel. Check out Monica’s great pictures on how to roll the pretzels on her blog called lick the bowl good. Place them all onto your lightly oiled parchment lined sheet pan.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds until they look puffy. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula and drain well. Put these boiled pretzels back onto the gently oiled parchment lined half sheet pan. The greasing of the parchment is essential here, so do not forget this step. If you do, the pretzels will stick to the paper during baking. Brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. If you are going to make the cinnamon sugar variety, do not use the egg wash, and just bake them right after boiling. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. After they are baked, brush them with melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
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