Game Day Pretzels

I used to have a pretzel recipe that my mom gave me but of course I can't locate it.  She used to make these killer pretzels with her food processor.  Since I thought pretzels would be a good thing to snack on for Sunday's Superbowl, I once again trolled online to find a suitable recipe.  And I found it.  Unfortunately, they didn't come out so pretty, but I'm just really out of practice.  It's gotta be about 12 years since I made them last.  Regardless of how they look, they are super tasty!

Recipe is once again courtesy of allrecipes.com and can be found here. 

GAME DAY PRETZELS

(I made a couple of them as pretzel twists.  YUMMY!)

INGREDIENTS:

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

 (These guys were shaped properly, but I didn't anticipate they'd rise so much while baking.  D'oh! But they still taste wonderful!!!)

PERSONAL NOTES:

One BIG note I have to mention is to add LESS flour!  Yes, the directions say to make a well with the dry ingredients and add the yeast/oil to it.  However... you will probably want to withhold about ONE CUP of flour and then slowly add it in as you're mixing.  When I did it, I ended up having to add several tablespoons of water which I think is just more complicated.  Withhold some flour and move forward from there.

Right as they came out of the oven I brushed melted butter on them.  Then I very lightly sprinkled the kosher salt to taste.  These are ridiculoulsy easy to make!

Just one more thing to remember: when rolling out each piece into the pretzel shape, be sure to allow for it to rise!  You may want to roll out at least 18" pieces.