Easy Homemade Soft Pretzels

Who would have thought you can make quick soft pretzels at home, no venturing to a crowded and loud mall required. You're probably thinking right now, yeah right making pretzels at home is sooo time consuming, what with making the dough, kneading the dough, the rising of the dough, the boiling of the dough, etc.  That's what I thought too! But due to some good fortune I stumbled across a blog that promised pretzel making would be simple and done in 30 minutes...."pshh, I gotta try this for myself", I thought. nom nom nom...excuse me, sorry im in the middle of finishing my 3rd preztel, and trying to type at the same time. 

Oh man, Sally's baking addiction wasn't kidding! These were some awesome and quick pretzels.  They were not only super fast to make, but there is no dough rising, no boiling, and barely any kneading involved. They were uber soft and I could barely contain myself when these bad boys came out of the oven. I wanted to stuff my face before I could even take photos, but then I snapped to it soon enough to realize if I ate all the pretzels immediately, then there would be none left to take pictures of... phew, close call. Once I took the pictures I then proceeded to stuff my face :)

 I hope you try these preztels for yourself, I was always a little intimidated with pretzel making but this recipe replaced all my fears and I cannot wait to try all sorts of different variations of pretzel flavors, like cinnamon and sugar, jalapeno, chocolate....the list goes on and on. 

30 Minute Homemade Soft Pretzels
Adapted from Sally's baking Addiction

Yields: 8-10 Pretzels

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups luke warm water
1 packet of highly active yeast (I used Fleischmann's)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1 large egg
course sea salt

Directions

-  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
-  In a large bowl, pour in the warm water and yeast, stir with a spoon until the yeast is dissolved, about 1 minute. Add in the salt and sugar and stir until incorporated.
-  Slowly add in the flour about 1 cup at a time, mix with a wooden spoon until it gets sticky, continue to add in all your flour and at this point is when I started to use my hands to finish mixing the dough. The dough should no longer be sticky.
-  Knead the dough for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface, once kneaded, shape into a ball, with a knife or your hands separate the dough into about 1/3 cup sections, or use smaller or bigger sections depending on how large you want your pretzels.

Divide your dough into sections

-  Roll the dough into a long rope about 20 inches long and form the pretzel shape and place on your parchment paper.

-  In a shallow bowl beat your egg and dip the pretzel (both sides) into the egg wash and place back onto your parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt.

Dipped in egg wash

-  Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, and turn the oven to broil for the last 3-4 minutes until the tops of the pretzel are golden brown, be careful to keep an eye on the pretzels once you switch it to broil because it might take only a couple of minutes for your pretzels to brown depending on your oven.

This was left in 4 minutes once switched to broil

This was left in for 3 minutes once switched to broil

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