I've always loved Auntie Annie's pretzels. It's been a desire of mine to somehow recreate them at home. This recipe is pretty dead-on. The only thing I didn't work out yet is a good honey-mustard dip. I had mine with mustard, Andrew ate his with honey and Alex had his, straight up. I froze the remaining 3, hoping they should reheat well for a snack sometime.My biggest challenge was actually forming the pretzels. Check out some youtube videos to get the knack of it.
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk (low fat is fine)
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/3 cup baking soda
- 2 tablespoons coarse salt
Directions
Make the pretzels: Warm the milk until it's about 110-120 degrees; sprinkle in the yeast. Let the yeast soften, about 2 minutes; stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup flour. I used a stand mixer with a dough hook but you could also mix by hand with a wooden spoon. Dice 2 tablespoons butter and soften; stir into the mix. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour and the fine salt to make a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. I found it necessary to add a lot more flour to this sticky dough. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. (If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes.) Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 30-inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a pretzel shape.
Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the coarse salt. I used two sheets, three pretzels on each. Be careful not to over salt. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Brush on some melted butter so it's glistening.
