Next Level Soft Pretzels

I like to indulge when I have a craving. My latest craving involved ball park food. Rockie’s Stadium sells these amazing pretzels with parmesean cheese. Since I didn’t have a ticket, or the extra cash to go, I made some myself.

These are hard to resist fresh out of the oven!

Ingredients (makes 16):

• 4 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 5 cups all-purpose unbleached white flour (sub whole wheat for a healthier treat)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons Kosher salt

For water on stove:

• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cups baking soda

Method:

Dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar and yeast in warm water. You’ll know its ready when the yeast is bubbly. Add sugar, vegetable oil, salt, and one cup flour. Keep adding flour slowly until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixer bowl. Knead for 5 minutes, then put it in a greased bowl in a warm spot to double in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down and turn out onto a floured surface. Divide the dough into 16 parts. Take each piece and roll it into a 20 inch long rope. Twist into a pretzel shape and boil for 2 minutes in water/baking soda mixture. Pull out and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Remove and enjoy!

To season your pretzel: Melt 1 tablespoon butter. Brush on the pretzel, and salt lightly.

I quite enjoy these plain or lightly salted, but I was feeling extra indulgent, so this is what I did:

Instead of just using plain butter, I melted it and added in some sliced garlic until it was soft. Brushed that on my pretzel, added a little bit of salt, and some freshly grated parmesean cheese. Amazing. I had about 3 this way before I was stuffed!

How do you like your pretzels? Just salted? Garlic and parmesean, like me? Cinnamon and sugar? Something else?