Soft Chewy Pretzels

Soft Chewy Pretzels

Ingredients:
3 tsp active dry yeast
3 pinches of sugar (mine were a little big)

1 cup warm water
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp. white sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt (you can do less if you are sharing with Grandpa :)
3 Tbsp oil
9 Tbsp baking soda
3 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt

Directions:
Dissolve yeast into water with the pinches of sugar and let stand 10 min.

Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt, and oil, and knead until combined (a few minutes, not even 5)

Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size (about 1 hour)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. (I just squished it in my hand into snakes.) Set aside on wax paper. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now).

Twist them into any shape that you want. (We did hearts for Valentine's Day and circles one time bc the girls couldn't get the pretzel shape, but you can do whatever.) Place on greased baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the strands.

Dissolve baking soda into the hot water and stir until mostly dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all pretzels with salt if wanted, (but we thought this was too much salt).

Bake for about 8-10 min, until pretzels have browned. Makes 16-18 medium sized pretzels.

***I have been seriously trying to find this recipe all my life. Okay, all my married life, but I finally found it! These are wonderful and I have made them 3 times so far (since Oct) and they always turn out fantastic! (I usually omit the sea salt bc they are salty enough already.)