Pretzel - soft version

Pretzel is a salty carefully shaped baked dough, that is well known to the people visiting a Theatre, Opera, Circus or even the Movies in Hungary. I remember the highlight of any performance was, when the half break came and we rushed out to the theatre Buffet and could not wait to bite those salty bits off the pretzel.

This recipe is simple, although it uses a very important technique that makes it soft, it is to put them into boiling water before baking.

Ingredients:

700g Plain Flour

2 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Tablespoon of (white) Sugar

70g soft Butter

10g Instant Dry Yeast (double for fresh)

200ml warm Milk

200ml warm Water

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, knead till smooth. about 10minutes.

Let it rest to rise for about an hour.

Knock it back down, and cut into 10 equal weight pieces.

Rest for 10 minutes.

Roll each piece out to a 40cm roll.

Rest for 10 minutes.

Now put a large enough pot/pan with water on the stove, add 1 tablespoon of bicarb soda per 1 liter of water. Bring it to the boil.

Now roll out each pieces of dough into a 70-80cm long roll.

Fold the two ends in and twist in the middle to form the pretzel shape.

Rest for 10 minutes.

Put them into the simmering water, and boil for 30 seconds each side.

Put them into a silicon mat or bake paper covered low side baking tray.

Bake in a 220c oven for 10 minutes.

While is in the oven, make the salty topping. - Mix 3 teaspoon of salt with 4 teaspoon of flour, add water to be like a crepe butter consistence.

After 10 minutes of baking, spoon some of this salty topping on the top of the pretzels so it runs down a bit on the sides.

Bake them for a further 10 minutes.

Let them cool down on the wire rack.

Enjoy!