Soft, buttery, twisted pretzels
Don't be intimidated to try this pretzel recipe!
Servings: 8 Pretzels
Ingredients
- 500 g white all purpose flour
- 360 mL lukewarm water
- 7 g instant or dry active yeast
- 1 tablespoon white or brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup bicarb soda
- flaky sea salt
- 25 g melted butter
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the lukewarm water and yeast. Mix well and leave to sit for 5 minutes to ensure the yeast is active. Bubbles should form at the top of the water. Combine the salt and sugar to the yeast water and mix well.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast water and olive oil. Bring together with a wooden spoon. Begin to knead the dough in the bowl and once it starts to form a ball, take it out of the bowl and place onto a lightly floured wooden surface. Knead for 5 minutes until slightly smooth.
- Drizzle a bowl with olive oil and place the dough into it. Cover with glad wrap or a damp tea towel and place into a warm spot. Leave to proof for 1 hour. The dough will double in size.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and bring a large pot of water with the bicarb soda to the boil.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a lightly floured working surface. Lightly flour a dough cutter or shark knife and divide the dough into 8 parts. Take 1 part of the dough and roll into a ball by using a cupping motion with your hands. This step should be done on a work surface that has not been floured and can create lots of friction. Roll the ball out into a long sausage shape. Grab the ends of the dough and slap the dough onto the counter as though you are using a skipping rope. This will further lengthen the dough. It should be roughly 20 – 22 inches long. Be careful not to break the dough in this step. Form a circle with the dough and then twist the two ends together. Bring the twisted ends back towards yourself and apply some pressure to form a pretzel shape. Place the pretzel onto a pre-lined baking tray and leave to rest while you make the others.
- Once all the pretzels have been shaped, drop 2 at a time into the bicarb soda bath for 30 seconds each. Remove from the bath with a slotted spoon and place back onto the pre-lined baking tray, leaving space around the pretzels as they will rise and expand when baked. Sprinkle it with flaky sea salt while the pretzels are still wet.
- Bake for 12 – 14 minutes or until golden and brown. Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter.
