Mom's Pretzels

Directions

1. Sprinkle the yeast over 1 cup of warm water in a bowl. The water should be no more than 100 degrees F (40 degrees C). Let stand for 10 minutes until the yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam.
2. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of flour, vegetable oil, and table salt, to make a thick, smooth batter. Stir in 1 1/4 cups of flour, and knead the dough on a well-floured surface until elastic, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, cover it with a cloth, and let it rest for 1 hour.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Cut the dough ball into 12 even pieces, and roll each out into a rope about 18 inches long and as thick as a pencil. To shape into pretzels, form a dough piece into a "U" shape, then cross the two tails to make a loop. Spread the two tail ends apart, bring them up, and press the ends into the top of the loop, to form the pretzel shape. Let the formed pretzels rest for 30 minutes on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Preheat an oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
6. Fill a large saucepan about half full of water, bring to a boil, and stir in the baking soda. Working one at a time, drop each pretzel into the boiling water, and let cook for 1 minute, to give the pretzel a skin. Place the boiled pretzels onto the prepared baking sheet, and sprinkle each one with coarse salt.
7. Bake in the preheated oven until the pretzels are golden brown, about 12 minutes.

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Reviews (42)

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60

Mrs. Hooper

Jun. 15, 2009

"This is a great and accurate recipe for making classic soft pretzels. Expect the dough to be sticky... that's just pretzel dough. If you add too much flour while kneading, your pretzels will be tough ..." See moreand hard. Follow the directions as written and you will come out with great pretzels."

17

spicyme

Nov. 25, 2009

"Very delicious. boiling them really gives them a good texture so dont skip that part! the only thing i would suggest is lightly greasing the baking pan before putting on the pretzels, because they wil..." See morel require a bit of coaxing to get off the pan after baking if you dont."

14

pomplemousse

Feb. 28, 2011

"Very good pretzels. Not sure why someone commented that they were hard; mine were not hard at all, and I refrigerated the dough bc I had to leave after making it. The dough was still cold when I sta..." See morerted shaping, so I would think they'd have ended up hard and dense on my batch, if anything, but they were soft and chewy. As for the distinct flavor of pretzels--try using beer for a different taste. I've tried a number of pretzel recipes since we love them in this house, and yes, these are a bit like regular bread, but they are still really good. You can play around with the toppings for these if you like: add shredded cheese, garlic, parmesan, cinnamon and sugar . . .the list goes on and on. That's the great thing about a plain pretzel recipe--it allows for endless variations! Thanks for the recipe!"