Soft Pretzels

Now that it's getting cooler I am finding myself baking more on the weekends. This weekend I wanted to make these soft pretzels from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Every Day. I think I am slowly baking through this book. This is my 7th recipe from it.

As with all the other recipes in this book, the dough requires overnight resting and fermentation in the fridge so I started it on Saturday. It is a simple recipe, just mix all the ingredients in the mixer.

I've never shaped or roll pretzels before so was a bit worried how it all will turn out, but it was simple enough. Peter instructed to divide the dough into 2 or 3 ounces size. I choose the 2 ounce and used my kitchen scale to do it. Then roll and shape the dough onto 17 inches length. In the book there are some instructions (with photos) on how to twist them.

For the topping the basic recipe used salt and suggests other toppings like sesame seeds as an alternative. I used salt, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds.

The recipe calls for baking these at 400'F for 8-10 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 8 minutes or until browned. I had to bake them for about 24 minutes to get them browned.

I know I am highly biased but I think they are so cute :).

You can see I got a little sprinkled happy and used all three toppings on some pretzels!

These are so good. I ate three after I took the photos. A little crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I liked the salt on top - it's just salty enough. I will definitely make these again.