Super Awesome Pretzels Recipes

Steps:

• Sprinkle yeast into warm water until bubbles form, about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, mix yeast/water, milk, brown sugar, oil, egg and salt until combined. Gradually add flour until dough becomes a slightly sticky ball.
• Knead dough on floured surface for 10 minutes, adding extra flour if necessary, until ball becomes tacky and satiny. Place in an oiled bowl, turn dough over, and cover with towel. Let dough rise for 1 hr, or until doubled in size, then knead again for 30 seconds. Spray 2 large baking pans with non-stick spray.
• Cut dough into 16 pieces. Cover pieces with towel so they don't dry out. On an unfloured surface, roll each piece into an ~18" rope* and fold into pretzel shape. Place formed pretzels onto cooking sheets, covering them with towel. Let rest for 15 minutes. In the meantime: in a large pot, bring 2" of water to a boil. Add baking soda, then reduce to a simmer.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Drop 2 pretzels at a time into poaching liquid for 1 minute, turning midway. Place poached pretzels back onto pan (you can sprinkle cornstarch on the pan if you're worried about them sticking). Mix egg yolk with water and brush onto poached pretzels. Sprinkle on seeds or kosher salt.
• Bake pretzels for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks. Yum!
• *NOTE: Try not to stretch the dough. If you have trouble rolling them to 18", roll each one to about 10", making sure to keep them covered. Then, go back to the first pieces and roll them longer.

Steps:

• Preheat Oven at 250º.
• Get your basic turkey roaster pan and spray the inside with no-stick cooking spray.
• Grab handfuls of pretzels and place them evenly in the roaster, try to avoid dumping in all the excess salt and broken pieces on the bottom of the bag.
• Hand mix together all other ingredients in a seperate bowl until all ingredients are mixed up really well.
• Pour this mixture evenly over the pretzels in the pan.
• Place the lid on and grasp the handles and lid tight and shake the pretzels so that they all are evenly coated.
• Place in the oven for 2 hours, stirring and shaking every 30 minutes.
• Make sure you stir up the pretzels on the bottom of the pan otherwise they will get burnt. When they are done cooking, I usually set the roaster out and let them cool for 15-20 minutes. After that I place them in a large bowl for serving.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup of flour, yeast, sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1 1/3 cup water. Let this mixture stand until bubble begin to form, about 15 minutes. Stir in the salt and gradually stir in the remaining flour until dough can be picked up and kneaded on the counter. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes, adding more flour if needed.
• Divide the dough into 6 pieces and let them rest for a few minutes. Roll out one piece at a time into a rope about 15 inches long. Loop and twist into that cool pretzel shape. Set on a baking sheet while you roll out the remaining portions.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C). Bring the remaining 3 cups of water to a boil and add the baking soda. Remove from the heat. Dip pretzels into the water bath for about 45 seconds, flipping over about halfway through. Place the soaked pretzels on a greased baking sheet. Brush them with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.

Steps:

• Stir yeast into 1 cup warm water in a large bowl; beat in flour, sugar, shortening, and salt to make a dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
• Place dough into a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down dough and divide into 12 equal-size pieces. Roll each piece into a rope 18 to 20 inches long.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.
• Shape each rope of dough into a pretzel on the prepared baking sheet; let pretzels rest for 5 minutes. Beat egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl and brush yolk mixture over each pretzel; sprinkle each with coarse salt.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pretzels are golden brown, about 15 minutes.