New York Style Soft Pretzels
Makes 10 large pretzels
(Germany)
Our love of these
delicious twists of malted dough definitely uncover our New York roots . In New York City virtually every street
corner has its resident soft pretzel
hawker and shoppers normally grab a soft
pretzel as they scurry from store to store. Try them warm and spread with yellow
delicatessen mustard like New Yorkers do, its GREAT !
Prep time: 15 minutes
Rise time: 1 hour 30 minutes (divided)
Bake time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
1 (12ounce)
bottle of good amber beer or non-alcoholic amber beer, warm (105° F)
1 package active
dry yeast (not instant rise yeast)
2 teaspoons honey
4-½ cups
unbleached all-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons fine
Kosher or sea salt
4 tablespoons
unsalted Butter, melted
¼ cups baking
soda
2 whole egg,
lightly beaten
Coarse Kosher
salt, for sprinkling
Preparation
create
the pretzel dough:
Pour the warm beer
into a 2 cup measuring cup, stir in the yeast and sugar and allow the yeast to
proof for 5-10 minutes. The mixture will form a foam head, if it doesn’t the
yeast is dead and you’ll need to start over.
Add the flour, salt,
melted butter, and the proofed yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer. Fix with the dough hook attachment and mix
using the dough hook until combined well. Place the finished dough in a lightly
oiled bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place
for 1 hour or until doubled.
form and
proof the pretzels:
Line several large
sheet pans with parchment paper and set aside.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured, clean surface. Punch it down and roll the dough into an evenly shaped log about 20 inches
long. Cut the log into 10 evenly sized
pieces. Roll each piece into a
"rope" about 18 inches long with slightly tapered ends.
Form each rope into the traditional,
three-ringed pretzel shape and place
the completed pretzel on the prepared baking sheet, repeat with the
remaining dough ropes placing the newly formed pretzels at least 1-inch from
the previous. As each pan is filled cover
with a damp kitchen towel and set aside.
Let the completed pretzels rise again until they double in size, about
30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425°F with
the oven rack in the middle position.
boil the
pretzels:
Bring 2 quarts of
water to a low boil, in a large sauce pan or pasta pot. Once the water boils, remove from heat and
slowly add the baking soda (if you put it in too fast the water will boil and
overflow the pot). Place the pot back
over the heat and lower to a simmer.
Place 1-2 pretzels at
a time into the poaching liquid, and poach for 30 seconds on one side and then
carefully turn the pretzel over and poach the other side for another 30
seconds. Remove from the poaching liquid with a slotted spoon and return to the
prepared sheet pan. Repeat this process with the remaining pretzels.
bake the
pretzels:
Brush each pretzel
with the beaten egg using a pastry brush, be sure the egg coats all exposed
sides completely, sprinkle each with a little of the coarse salt.
Place the sheet in the
preheated oven and bake the rolls for 2-30 minutes, until they are golden
brown.
service:
Serve accompanied by
yellow mustard and melted cheez whiz.
