Soft Baked Pretzels

Miss those days where you would walk around the shopping centre and buy yourself one of those humongous soft pretzels from Auntie Annes ? Us too. So we decided to have a go at making some soft baked pretzels at home ourselves. Now, it’s not exactly the real deal but these soft baked pretzels are pretty darn good and you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry already. There is some kneading and leaving the dough to rise in this recipe but the end result are these humongous soft pretzels that have a great chew and are perfect for dunking in cheese sauce. Don’t worry, we’ve included the recipe for the cheese sauce too.

Just a word of warning, when doing the bicarbonate soda boil, just slowly add in the powder otherwise it will flow over and you’ll be scrubbing your cooker for a few days. We’re speaking from experience – sigh.

Soft Baked Pretzels Recipe

Ingredients 

480g plain flour 
7g instant yeast 
1 tbsp salt 
1 tbsp sugar 
360ml water, warm 
2 tbsp butter, melted 
70g bicarbonate soda 
2L water 
Egg wash 
Sea salt for garnish 

Cheese sauce: 
1 tbsp butter 
1 tbsp flour 
250ml milk 
Pinch of salt 
1 tsp chilli powder 
1 block cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1. In a bowl, mix together flour, instant yeast, salt, sugar and melted butter. Slowly add in the water until it comes together in the bowl and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size.
   
2. Once the dough has risen, cut it into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6.
   
3. Taking one ball, roll it out into a long rope and grabbing both ends, bring them up, twist them together and fold them over down onto the U. Cover in cling film and leave for 15-20 minutes until they become puffy.
   
4. In a pan, bring water to a boil and slowly add in the bicarbonate soda. Do not add this in all at once otherwise it will be a catastrophe! Slowly place one pretzel at a time into the pan of water for 30 seconds and flip onto the other side for an additional 30 seconds. Remove the pretzel from the pan and place on a tray lined with greaseproof paper, brush on the egg wash and sprinkle sea salt on top.
   
5. Place the trays in the preheated oven and cook until the pretzels have become golden brown. 
   
6. For the cheese sauce: In a pan, melt the butter and once melted, add in the flour. Keep stirring until it becomes a paste and then slowly whisk in the milk until it becomes a runny sauce. Remove from the heat and add in the salt, chilli and grated cheese and stir until the cheese has fully melted. 
   
7. Serve immediately with cheese sauce. You can store these in an airtight container and they will last hot keep three days.