Any time we go to a shopping mall and there's an Auntie Anne's around, you can smell the aroma of their delicious, baked pretzels! And it's so hard to resist! My children could eat so many of them! So I decided to learn how to make them so they could have as many as they wanted!
This is a recipe I have found works really well. I normally spread them with butter or ghee, but since my son is vegan, I've found that an unflavoured oil works well too!
You can use whichever toppings you like, make these into pretzel bites by cutting up the rolled dough into pieces, or make pretzel dogs by wrapping your favourite hotdog in the rolled dough! The choice is yours, so get creative!
Vegan or not, these pretzels are simply delicious!
Auntie Anne's Pretzel Recipe Cooking Time: 90 Minutes (Approx)
Makes 15 Pretzels
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups Warm Water
2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (1 pkg.)
2 TBSPN Brown Sugar
1 1/4 tsp Salt
4 Cups or 500g Plain Flour
2 Cups Warm Water
2 TBSPN Baking Soda or Soda Bicarbonate
Coarse Salt or 6 TBSPN Granulated Sugar + 1 TBSPN Cinnamon Powder for topping
2 - 4 TBSPN Melted Butter, Ghee or Unflavoured Oil
METHOD
Mix the yeast with the brown sugar and the warm water. Leave it to rise for about 5 minutes, until it gets foamy.
Meanwhile, combine the salt and the flour together in a mixing bowl.
Add the yeast liquid mixture to the dry flour mixture and knead the dough by hand or in your mixer until it is smooth and elastic. This takes about 10 minutes.
Be sure to spread a little oil on the outside of the dough! Then cover this with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place for between 30 minutes to an hour, until it has increased in size a bit.
While the dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm-hot water and 2 tbsp. baking soda. Make sure you stir this every now & then. The bath is ready when the water looks clear.
Preheat your oven to 230ºC (450ºF).
After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough larger than your fist size. Then roll into a long rope (about 1cm thick and about 2 feet or 1/2 metre long) and shape into a pretzel. Stick the ends on as firmly as possible.
Dip the pretzel into the baking soda bath by holding it by the attached ends, and then place them on a lightly greased baking sheet.
For salted pretzels, sprinkle a little coarse salt before baking. Otherwise leave them plain.
Bake in a preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes or until a nice golden-brown colour.
Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter, ghee or oil. Then sprinkle cinnamon-sugar or additional salt if desired.
Other topping ideas are Jalapenos, Cheese, Pepperoni, Garlic Powder, etc.
Note: It is better to make larger pretzels (not thicker) so that the shape stays better.
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