I’m really a big fan of warm soft pretzels.  There’s just something about a nice warm doughy pretzel combined with crunchy salt.  Yum!  There’s not than many places anymore where you can get a soft pretzel though.  So when I saw that I could make my own soft pretzels, I was all over that!

Sunday morning was rainy here in Western Pennsylvania so I dubbed it “dough day”.  I made two more batches of pizza dough then I made this easy pretzel dough recipe.  Needless to say, I had flour pretty much everywhere.  I’d love to know of anyone who doesn’t make a mess with flour!

The hardest part about this recipe is waiting the 1 hour between making the dough and then making the pretzels.  I just was so excited to see if they would turn out well!  And well they did!  These pretzels turned out so yummy.  And the recipe makes a very large batch of dough, so much so that I froze half of it for another day.

Soft Pretzel Bites

from the domestic mama and the village cook

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup melted butter (cooled)
1 egg yolk (reserve the white)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
5 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

1.  Dissolve the yeast packet in the warm water.  Add the butter, egg yolk, sugar, salt and milk.  Mix well.  Transfer the mixture to your stand mixer.

2.  Slowly add flour 1 cup at a time and knead dough for about 5 minutes.  Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp towel and let rest for 1 hour.

3.  Preheat oven to 425°.  After dough has rested, cut or separate dough into 8 equal sections.

4.  With each dough portion, roll out a long rope about 2 foot in length and 1 1/2″ wide.  Cut the dough ropes into one inch pieces and place them on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

5.  Whisk 1 tablespoon of water with the reserved egg white until frothy.  Brush egg whites onto each nugget of dough and sprinkle with kosher salt.

6.  Bake for about 14 – 15 minutes or until golden brown.