German Soft Pretzels

One of my transit flights while travelling in the USA, I was boarding southwest airlines. I was exhausted and hungry with barely any time left to grab a meal, so I was please to receive a small pack of goodies while boarding the flight. The packet consisted of pretzels and some salted nuts which was good to save me from getting famished. 

It was the first time I had tasted pretzels. Now we get these easily in India but the high salt content keeps me off it. I also tasted the soft pretzels version which is the original german version as I read. This is more like a bagel but I like especially a day later to munch upon. 

It is easy to make and if you need authentic brown crust then you may have to purchase lye or follow the site I found which sugegsts an alternative.

Ingredients

3.5 cups all purpose flour

1 cup luke warm water

2 1/4 tspn yeast

3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup honey

2 tspn salt

1 tspn baked baking soda (I skipped this but you like the brown glaze you find on pretzels) follow the below link

For topping

coarse salt for topping

Method

1) Mix the ingredients in a bowl and knead to make a soft pliable dough

2) Let the dough rest for 30-40 min until it doubles in size

3) Boil about 3 cups of water and also grease a baking sheet

4) Now pull the dough and roll it thinner at the edges. Use only the fingers and not palm to roll this.

5) Once rolled out, make a x shape as shown below

6) Next make a knot shape and place the edges across each other on the opposite side and seal press them as shown in the 2 pictures below.

7) Finish for all.

8) Brush with milk or butter and sprinkle coarse salt- I skipped as I am on low salt diet.

9) Drop these carefully in boiling pot containing the lye or baked baking soda (refer here). As soon as they float on the top, remove and place on baking sheet. Repeat for all

10) Bake in preheated oven at 200c until the top is slightly colored. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44