Soft pretzels are the best. This recipe makes almost exactly 36 ounces of dough and yields 12 3oz pretzels. Enjoy! All ounce measurements are by weight and not volume. (Please get a kitchen scale. You will be so happy you have one!)
11-11.25ozroom temperature water(start with 11 oz and only add a smidge more water if things seem to dry. This dough should be pretty firm though and not at all sticky)
2ozmelted butter
½ozmalt syrup or dark corn syrup
2 ¼teaspoonskosher salt
22ozall purpose flour
¼oz.25 oz active dry yeast
To Boil
10cupswater
1/2-2/3cupbaking soda(I use 1/2 cup. Use 2/3 if you'd like your pretzels to be a bit darker once baked.)
To Finish
1egg plus 1 teaspoon of water for egg wash
coarse salt of your choosing for finishing
Instructions
Put all the ingredients in the order they appear in the recipe into the bowl of your stand mixer. Attach the dough hook and mix for 1 minute on low speed. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead for 8 minutes. If after 3-4 minutes the dough seems a bit dry, add the extra 1/4 oz of water, but no more than that. The dough should completely clear the sides and bottom of the bowl. When you're finished kneading, the bowl should almost look like it's clean.
Once the kneading time is over, the dough should be smooth and soft to touch but fairly firm and not at all sticky.
Form it into a ball and place it back in the mixer bowl. Spray the top and sides with pan spray, cover and let rise at room temperature until doubled. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, this could take anywhere from an hour to up to three hours.
When the dough is nicely risen, turn it out onto a clean work surface and press out all the gases.
Use a bench knife and your kitchen scale to divide the dough into 3 oz portions.
So the dough doesn't dry out, place each piece under plastic wrap as you divide it.
Spray 2 rimmed baking sheets with pan spray and cover the sheets with plastic wrap--this is what you'll use to keep the pretzels from drying out when forming them.
Roll each portion of dough into a long snake approximately 2 feet long. Bring the ends up and cross them over each other twice and press the ends down into the center of the snake to form a pretzel shape. (Video below.)
Place each finished pretzels on the pans under the plastic, six per pan.
Freeze the pretzels for a good hour or an hour and a half until they are solidly frozen.
To Boil
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375F.
Bring 10 cups of water to a boil in a large Dutch oven. Add the baking soda and stir to evenly dissolve.
Bring one sheet of pretzels out of the freezer. Boil 2 pretzels at a time for approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute, until they float and are somewhat puffed. While the pretzels are boiling, Re-spray that part of the sheet pan. Remove pretzels from the water with a slotted spoon or a spider and place back on the tray. Once all the pretzels are boiled, repeat with the second tray of pretzels.
To Finish and Bake
Brush the pretzels with a thin coating of egg wash and sprinkle liberally with coarse finishing salt. I used sel gris for one tray and a smoked salt for the other. Feel free to use pretzel salt, fleur de sel or your favorite finishing salt--or switch things up and use sesame seeds or poppy seeds if you prefer.
Bake one tray of pretzels at a time. Bake for 10 minutes. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake an additional 8-10 minutes until deeply golden brown.
Remove to a rack to cool. Serve warm with grainy mustard and beer cheese. Store extras in the freezer and reheat in the toaster oven or oven.