Swedish Pretzels

 Prep time: 30 min.
Rest: 30 min.
Bake time: 10-15 min. @ 425 degrees


Yields: 16 pretzels


Ingredients:

Pretzel:
7 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dry active yeast or 1 3/4 ounce fresh yeast
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Top:
1 egg, beaten
kosher salt

Directions:
Melt margarine/butter in small sauce pan.  Add milk and heat until lukewarm.  If using active dry yeast heat until 115 degrees or 100 degrees for fresh yeast.  Pour milk into an electric mixing bowl and add the sugar and yeast.  Stir until dissolved, scrapping sides as needed.  Add half the flour at a high speed and then knead in remaining flour (or if you have a dough hook attachment you can use that).  Work dough until it is smooth and elastic.  If it is sticking to the sides of the bowl let it rest for a few minutes.  Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.  It should be loose, warm, and feel "alive".  Divide dough into 16 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a long stripe and form into a pretzel.  Place on greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.  Brush with egg and sprinkle with salt if desired.  Place in the oven for 5-10 minutes, depending on desired color.  Transfer to cooling rack.


One of my favorite foods is a big ol' pretzel.  I mean, come on, who doesn't love a bread they can slather in cheese?  Pretzels are my go-to food at sporting events.  I know hot dogs are usually the most common, but my first choice is always a pretzel.  One day I realized I am always waiting for a sporting event to eat a pretzel and I don't have to.  That is when I decided to try and find a recipe to make myself the perfect pretzel.  When I found this recipe I knew it was "the one". 

When I am heating the milk I always use a candy thermometer.  Usually I end up heating it to about 120-125 degrees which will not hurt the dough.  Just make sure you do not go over 140 degrees.  That is when the heat starts to kill the yeast and it will not rise properly.  When you start whisking the yeast and sugar into the heated mixture it takes a minute or two.  There will be some small clumps of yeast left, but most of it should be dissolved.  I also add all the flour with the dough hook.  The original recipe says to knead the remaining half of the flour in by hand, but I did not want to spend time kneading.  The hook works great.

Rolled out dough ball

Dough balls

 Now, I am super picky on wanting the dough divided evenly.  I cut my dough with a knife into equal portions.  Then roll them out.  The best method for me is to start on one end of the dough and roll it on the counter working my way to the other side until it is about 18-22 inches long.

Formed, rested, egged, and salted

Then form the pretzels on the cookie sheet.  I give my ends and middle (where there are two pieces meeting) a little push so they stay stuck together.  The first time I made these I had a couple that shifted in baking.  After that I have always pushed down those areas and never had a problem.  I like to use Kosher salt, but I have also used sea salt in the past and they both taste great.

These pretzels are a little on the sweet side.  If you want to make cinnamon sugar pretzels I would leave the sugar at 1/2 cup, but when I am making these for my husband for his lunch I reduce it to 1/3 cup.  They also freeze and reheat great.

Yum!  I will be posting a dipping sauce to go along with these soon.

This pretzel dough recipe is great for so many things. You can make quiet a few small ones or a few large ones.  During football season I am going to try and make a pretzel cheese twist bread or maybe cinnamon and sugar dipping sticks.  The possibilities are endless.  Now, I just have to find that perfect cheese dip.






(Recipe Source: Swedish Cakes & Cookies)