Corey's Crave Case: Homemade Soft Pretzels

There are few things that I find more enjoyable than heading to a sporting event, grabbing a beer, and munching on a soft pretzel. Well, what if you could make soft preztels at home to eat while watching the game from your living room? No, not microwaved super pretzels... Fresh as if you bought them from a street vendor in Philadelphia.

So what better than to add a recipe for Homemade Soft Pretzels! These might not be the easiest or the quickest to make, but they sure are a delight. Most of you know that above all, I enjoy comfort food. This definitely is that type of food.

If you have a few hours and feel like trying something fun in the kitchen, I encourage you to try this recipe out.

Now, let me start by saying that I have never had the best luck with yeast and this recipe sure tested my patience. I think like all things, practice makes perfect. Here is a breakdown of the ingredients that I used.

Prep Time: 90 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes

1 Envelope of Dry Yeast (Active)
1 1/4 tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 cups Water (About 120F - any hotter will kill the yeast)
4 1/2 cups Flour
2 tbsp Butter (Unsalted - Melted)
Pretzel Salt
1 Large Egg
1 tbsp Water
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

1. We need to start be getting the yeast active. Begin by mixing the yeast, warm water, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Let these ingredients settle for a few minutes.

2. Now, mix in your melted butter and your flour. You will find this dough very easy to form. Now you have a mixer, you could definitely use a doughhook to bring the dough together but I honestly enjoy getting my hands dirty. This means that you will need to knead the door quite a bit and really get the yeast going. I kneaded my dough for about 10 minutes until my hands got a bit tired.

3. Now, take the ball of dough and place in a bowl coated with your vegetable oil. Make sure all sides of the dough have a thin coating of oil but discard any excess oil to avoid the dough sitting in a pool of oil. The dough will need about 45 minutes -60 minutes to rise.

4. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Each portion should be slightly smaller than a baseball. You will then roll out each ball into a long strand about half an inch or more thick in diameter.

5. Now, this part can be a bit tricky but the main thing to remember here is that these pretzels aren't being made to enter a beauty pageant, they are to be eaten. They definitely don't need to be in perfect pretzel form. Regardless, the crazy shapes give the pretzels some character! Just try your best. A simple loop over technique on both sides works well.

6. Once shaped, you are going to start stage 1 of the cooking process - cooking for 1 minute in boiling water (30 secs per side). Place the pretzel in the water carefully - I used a spatula and lowered the pretzel into the water.

7. Once removed from the pot, place the pretzels on a baking sheet. You will be brushing the pretzels with your eggwash (the egg and water wisked together). After fully coated, sprinkle a generous portion of your salt on the pretzel. The pretzels will rise so the salt will spread out more than you expect.

8. Now, simple baked in the oven at 425F for about 12 minutes. My oven did smoke up a bit because of the moisture in the pretzel - this is pretty normal - just keep a close eye on everything.