Wondering Where They Went Pretzels

Total Time: 2 hrs 10 mins Preparation Time: 2 hrs Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees f/45 degrees c)
• 5 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon butter or 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 4 cups hot water
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 3 whole pepperonis per pretzels, halfved (optional)
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzerella per pretzel
• 1/4 cup cinnamon sugar mix per pretzel (optional)

Recipe

• 1 in a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 2 teaspoon sugar in warm water. let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
• 2 in a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. make a well in the center; add the butter/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.
• 3 preheat oven to 450 degrees. in a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
• 4 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. (i also made two variations. pepperoni and cinnamon).
• 5 bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, or until browned.
• 6 pepperoni- as the pretzel is still wet i added shredded mozzerella then pepperoni slices, and then baked them the same way. only thing different is after they come out i melt butter and table salt and brush the mix over the pretzel.
• 7 cinnamon- same as the pepperoni i mixed sugar and cinnamon and sprinkled a light coat over the preztel, and baked them as directed. only thing different is after they come out i melt butter and brush the pretzels then adding another coat of cinnamon sugaryness!