It's beginning to look like Fall here in Seattle. The air is crisp, the clouds have arrived and the rain has fallen. I love it. Well, just not the rain part. Everything else is "A-OK" with me.
Anyways, I don't know about you but I have this crazy obsession with anything carbs. Whether it be rice, pasta or bread! I commend anyone that can do those "low carb/no carb" diets. How can you live your life without BREAD?! lol. This leads to this week's recipe for Soft Pretzels. One of my favorite "carb-ed" foods at the mall has got to be Soft Pretzels from Auntie Anne's. They're soft, chewy, salty (or sweet) and just soooooo good! How can you go wrong with a Soft Pretzel that is dipped in butter and has various toppings and sauces to dip it in?! Talk about YUM!! This is a copycat recipe of Auntie Anne's. The original recipe was from CDKitchen which you can find here. I love these pretzels! They are delicious!! Chewy, salty, the cinnamon sugar one was sweet and overall just great. Totally reminded me of Auntie Anne's. I must admit, I ate half the batch of pretzels. lol. Did I mention these make your house smell like Soft Pretzels? The smell of these as they were baking got me excited! Here's my tips and recipe!
**Tips
-Try to roll out the pretzel dough as thin as you can. Sort of like the thickness of a pencil. The thinner it is, the better the outcome and the more it looks like the original.
-Using Kosher Salt is perfectly fine to use instead of pretzel salt. Who wants to buy a huge thing of pretzel salt for a batch of pretzels anyway?
Soft Pretzels (Makes 12)
Ingredients:1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour
2 cups Warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)
Directions:
Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.
While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 Tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!
Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!
omg you HAVE to stop me from making these. i ate like a gazillion last summer and put on sooo much weight!
ReplyDeleteI love carbs and I love Auntie Anne! I am going to make these asap.. with almonds (my fav)!
ReplyDeleteOkay this is totally going into the top of my bookmarks list. I live in the UK and there are only like 5 Auntie Anies here, none of them are near me. Many thanks for posting this recipe!!!
ReplyDelete:D HH
Wow, I'm a carbivore too! And I LOOOOVE pretzels. I am going to give this a try, the only question I had was- what's the difference between bread flour and regular flour?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Yum, my favorite! We love making those in our house. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
ReplyDeletethat loooks really professional wow..
ReplyDeleteWow. What a lovely, bright blog you have! These pretzels look exactly like those you see in the mall. I'm bookmarking this recipe. Thanks for the great photos and recipe!
ReplyDeleteHannah: Haha. I know right? Soooo Addictive!!
ReplyDeleteEva: Yay! I hope they turn out great!!
Heavenly Housewife: Your welcome! I hope it turns out great!!
Sara: Bread flour is a high gluten flour which increases how elastic the dough will be. It really just allows the bread to be more chewy when baked. It's just ideal for breads. All purpose doesnt have as much gluten. As to why this recipe needed more all purpose, I'm not quite sure. The result was great though!
Amnah: Nice!! I'll definitely be stopping by your blog often!
An open book: Thanks!! :)
Memoria: Thank you so much!! :D
Wow pretzels! The only fresh pretzels Ive tasted were in Sydney and they were amazing! Yours look really good :)
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how your pretzels look so similar (even better, actually) to the ones you can really get at Auntie Anne's. Great work!
ReplyDeleteLe: Really? I love fresh pretzels way more than the crispy one. They're just something about the chewiness I like.
ReplyDeleteMelanie: Wow! Thank you!! :DD
These look gorgeous. I love pretzels and now have to make them. You made them so well. Really lovely blog....
ReplyDeleteThanks! :D
ReplyDeleteThose Annies Pretzels are my favorite! YUM!
ReplyDeleteYour pretzels look fabulous! I made some with my daughter from a mix, and now I am copying your recipe so we can make them from scratch! We love soft pretzels. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteand thanks for the nice comment on my blog!
Cheryl: They're sooo good!!
ReplyDeleteDishesdone: Thank you and your welcome!! :D
Aaron, these pretzels looks really delicious!
ReplyDeleteHave a nice time!
Paula
Yay for bread! Fall must be great in Seattle. In NY it is coming to full bloom. These look great. I want to try the cinnamon ones.
ReplyDeleteThese look fun! I'm definitely going to try to make these! My husband loves soft pretzels so it might be fun to try :) Great photos!
ReplyDeletePaula: Thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteRick: Thanks! Fall is definitely one of my favorite times of year!
Pretty.Good.Food: Thanks! I hope the pretzels turn out great!!
Theese looks great! Ooh, I have been sooo in the mood for prezels ever since I had some in southern germany!!
ReplyDeleteI've doggy earred this page for future reference so that I can try them out! :) Thanks!
Cathi
Ca La Kate: Thanks!! I hope they come out great!
ReplyDeleteThis is one great recipe! I have tried making it and I cant believe at how easy it is. The recipe is very easy to follow and it turned out perfect. Thanks a lot for sharing this to us. Kudos to yoU!
ReplyDeleteOh man i just made a batch of these and my pretzel craving is more than satisfied!! I didn't have bread flour and just used all AP flour and they were a tad dense, but still SO YUM! And it was my first time making a dough that required yeast!
ReplyDelete