Best. Pretzels. Ever.

The other day I saw that my friend, Amber, was going to make soft pretzels for her son's birthday party and put it on her blog, This Mommy Cooks. They just sounded so good so I thought "Why not do a grown-up version for hubby's birthday party?!" I think the title of this post says it all. I preferred the plain ones with the Beer Cheese Dip, but people went crazy over the cinnamon sugar ones. You can definitely use this as a base to make many different kinds, some other examples might include jalapeno, cheddar, chocolate chip, etc. For a great video on how to make the pretzels, visit Joy the Baker. 

PS - The recipe I used from Food Network Magazine is one of their "Almost Famous" recipes. It's a copycat of Auntie Anne's pretzels.

Best. Pretzels. Ever.

from Food Network 

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1 package active dry yeast

3 TBS packed light brown sugar

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading

2 TBS unsalted butter, plus more for basting

1 tsp fine salt

1/3 cup baking soda

2 TBS coarse salt

Directions

Warm the milk in a saucepan until it's about 110 degrees; pour into a medium bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let the yeast soften, about 2 minutes; stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup flour with a wooden spoon. Dice 2 tablespoons butter and soften; stir into the mix. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour and the fine salt to make a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 450 and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. (If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes.) Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 30-inch rope. Form each rope into a pretzel shape.

Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Bake until golden about 10 to 12 minutes.

Enjoy!