Monday, January 17, 2011

Buttery Soft Pretzels


When I was 20 years old, I was addicted to Auntie Anne's Soft Pretzels. So addicted that I wouldn't go to the mall to shop. I would go to get a pretzel. Finally frustrated by not being able to have one ANY time I wanted I bought an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel mix and dissected it in hopes of replicating my favorite treat at home.


After a few failed batches, I came up with a recipe that tasted (so says me) as good as Auntie Anne's. I shared this recipe on Allrecipe.com (recipe here). Within a year it became a top rated recipe and was included in the Allrecipes.com Dinner Tonight cookbook. It was exciting!


It has been almost 10 years and I still make these soft pretzels a few times each month. The pretzels are a bit on the sweeter side, which lends itself well to a cinnamon sugar coating. But it holds up well with more savory ingredients like pepperoni and cheese.



A few tips before you begin:
-Start with 4.5 cups of flour and increase the amount as needed. You want a soft, pliable dough.
-Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and spray with a non stick spray. The baking soda solution makes the pretzels difficult to remove from the pan.
-Brush or dip the pretzels while they're hot.
-These are best when eaten immediately. Cold soft pretzels are not that tasty.





Buttery Soft Pretzels
By Christa Rose

Ingredients

  • 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • 4 cups hot water
  • 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping (optional)
  • 1/4 cup butter, for brushing



In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.


In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.



Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.



When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.



Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned. Brush with melted butter.

A variation: Pepperoni and Cheese stuffed soft pretzels


Roll out a piece of dough into a long rope and flatten. Line with slivers of pepperoni slices and shredded mozzarella cheese. Pinch the sides of dough together encasing the filling in the dough.


Shape into a pretzel shape. Dunk in baking soda solution, top with more shredded cheese and bake.


Happy eating :)

24 comments:

  1. I bet these are amazing when they're still a little warm. Mmmm, a couple of these with a nice bowl of creamy tomato soup would be heaven, indeed. ;)

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  2. Whoa! Congrats Christa Rose! How freaking cool to see your name in a cookbook. Needless to say, I cannot wait to try your famous soft pretzels :D

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  3. Those look great! I am going to give them a try.

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  4. Carolyn, that's exactly what I had for dinner tonight! I reheated the pretzels and ate it with tomato soup. I guess great minds think alike ;)

    Aw, thanks Ali :) They go great with beer!

    Steph, thanks so much!

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  5. These look amazing , I definitely have to try this one :).

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  6. whwn you preface anything with 'buttery soft' you've got my attention :)

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  7. These sound and look delicious! Pretzels are on my "to try" list, so I'll have to make these sometime soon. Sounds like it's a tried and true recipe :)

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  8. YUM! These pretzels look amazing. I like Auntie Annie's too... great, now I am craving some! :)

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  9. nice recipe

    well done

    can i replace butter with oil?

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  10. Mmmmm.....fresh, soft pretzels. Lovely.

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  11. This looks fabulous! I love to work with dough....I've never made pretzels. I will try this soon!

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  12. Congrats on getting your recipe published! And I can see why! These sound amazing!

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  13. I was beginning to become worried that I was some closet case baking addict. I actually felt some relief reading your blog. Thank you, more than you know...

    We made pretzels last week actually... but nothing compared to yours. These will be my next venture.

    Thank you again!!

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  14. How cool that your recipe is published. I bet it continues to be popular. I've been into pretzels lately, too, but I haven't found a recipe to try. I think my search stops here. Thanks for sharing this with us. I can't wait for a buttery warm pretzel coming out of my very own kitchen!

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  15. That is so very cool that you were included in the cookbook! Congrats! Oh, and I'm totally making these. Can I post your recipe on my blog, (giving you all of the credit of course)??

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  16. Oh my, this looks wonderful! I love a good pretzel.

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  17. This looks amazing! Well deserved top 9. The recipe looks kinda large tho. I suppose I could freeze some of them in their uncooked stage?

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  18. Thank you all for the kind words :)Your comments make me want to keep the blog going LOL.

    simplyshoup, there's no shame in being a baking addict!

    Lori Renn, I would be honored if you would share my recipe with others :)

    Ghadee, I haven't tried replacing the butter with oil, but brushing with olive oil would give it a nice light flavor. Let me know how it turns out!

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  19. Wow, excellent post!
    Nice pictures and delicious baking...
    I will have to get myself into baking a little bit more.

    Keep up the excellent work.

    http://cucharaoriginal.blogspot.com/

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  20. I still love a good Auntie Annie's cinnamon-sugar pretzel! They were always my favorite growing up!

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  21. This is really a FANTASTIC recipe, I've made it a few times now, and it always makes absolutely delicious & amazing pretzels. Thank you so much for sharing!

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  22. We made this for dinner last night:

    http://www.changeofpaceforme.com/2011/03/potato-soup-pretzels-popcorn.html

    OMG. This recipe is unreal Christa! I need to work on my rolling/shaping technique but the flavor is amazingly better than the mall pretzels.

    Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!

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  23. YOU are Buttery of Buttery Soft Pretzals??? I am celebrity-struck! I made them last year and haven't stoppped thinking about them since. I actually taught my 12 year old nephew to make them last Sunday and the poor kid had barely any to eat himself after the entire family devoured them. Flipping amazing! I even blogged about it: http://allthingsgale.blogspot.com/2011/02/tasty-tuesday-saboteur-extraordinaire.html

    I can't wait to see what other delicious items I can find on your blog!

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  24. These pretzels are incredible! I make them for parties and everyone raves about them and requests I make them again and again. I'm trying the "stuffed" version today, with pepperoni and Daiya (non dairy cheese). Thank you so much for your awesome recipe! -Jessica

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