Debut! Recipe Wednesday (On a Thursday...): Auntie Anne's Pretzels

I've decided to start posting recipes on this little blog because, hello, I make the yummiest stuff! The majority of my finds come from the internet, and my favorite Swiss cookbook given to me by my wonderful Grandma Sue. But my debut recipe is one that has recently made a comeback in our home (meaning we've been eating them all.the.time.) and it was given to me by one of my favorite Young Women leaders when I was a Laurel. I went through a phase where I made these puppies once or twice a week for like 3 months. It was awesome.

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels
1 ¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon yeast
3 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons oil

Bath
2 cups warm water
¼ cup baking soda

Toppings
¼ cup melted butter
kosher or pretzel salt OR cinnamon-sugar
Or, whatever you want! We love garlic poweder and cheese.

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Combine flour, powdered sugar
and salt. Add water with yeast and oil. Stir till dough forms a large ball. Knead 5
minutes as dough pulls off sides of bowl. Allow to rise in warm place for 45 minutes, till
double in size.

Preheat oven to 425. Make soda bath in a small pan (or even a bowl, or some tupperware). Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll into long sticks and form pretzels. Try to make them as long and skinny as possible, otherwise your pretzels will be really doughy on the inside. Dip formed pretzels into bath then 

set on paper towel for a moment. Place on greased cookie sheet. If you want salt (slash garlic powder), 

sprinkle immediately. Bake 4 minutes then spin pan half-way round in oven before 

baking another 4-5 minutes, till pretzels are golden brown. Immediately brush with 

melted butter and cool slightly.

 

If you want the cinnamon-sugar topping, brush with a generous amount of butter and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on BEFORE you bake. Then you get baked butter/sugar goodness on your pretzel. 

Hello gorgeous pretzels. We had these for dinner a couple of weeks ago. The top one is just salt and garlic powder with a bunch of garlic butter brushed all over it. The bottom one is exactly the same plus as much cheese as I could get to stay on. We dipped these in pizza sauce and garlic butter (and Kevin dipped his in some hot sauce, little weirdo).