Soft Pretzels

Do you ever pass by the pretzel place in the mall and sigh because you know you should avoid the high fat/white flours/preservatives/ect that are in the pretzels? Here’s a recipe to make your own at home! These are made with half white and half wheat flour to be a little more healthy 🙂 You can also make them with whole wheat but we prefer them to be half and half.

Soft Pretzels

What you need:

• 1 1/8 cups water water
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 1/2 cups fresh ground wheat flour
• 3 T. brown sugar or sucanat
• 1 1/2 t. yeast
• 2 quarts water (for boiling)
• 1/2 c. baking soda
• salt

First you’ll need to grind your wheat. I used soft white wheat berries and the “bread” setting.

Place the first five ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. You can mix up the flour, using white or wheat or whatever combination you prefer. We did one batch all wheat and the second batch using half white/half wheat. Place your bread machine on the dough cycle.

Once the dough cycle is complete, remove your dough onto a surface and cut in the amount of pieces you would like. We made 10 in one batch and 11 in the second batch. If you want larger pretzels, make less pieces.

Roll each piece into a long rope.

Then form into the pretzel shape.

In a large stockpot, bring the 2 quarts of water and baking soda to a boil.

Place the shaped pretzels into the boiling soda water, a couple at a time. Boil for approximately 15 seconds.

Remove from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and place them on a greased cookie sheet. I salted mine once out of the water, before I baked them. If you do it right away, while they are still damp, the salt will stick to them nicely.

Bake them for 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

Enjoy them right from the oven! They are delicious.
We refrigerated our leftovers and just warm them as we eat them. You can also freeze them to save them for later treats!