Pretzels are the perfect snack. These warm and buttery homemade soft pretzels or Bretzel as they are called in Germany are so easy to make and super delicious. It’s surely worth the time to make them to get the incomparable homemade taste.
In a small bowl first add sugar. Then pour in warm water. Dissolve the yeast in the bowl of warm water. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
In a big bowl, mix together the flour, salt and brown sugar. Then make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour in the yeast mixture along with the vegetable oil into the dry ingredients. Mix and form this into a dough. If the dough is a bit dry you can add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
Once the dough comes together turn it out to a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough until it’s smooth ( about 8 minutes ).
Lightly oiled a large bowl. Place the kneaded dough in the bowl. Turn it once to coat the dough with the oil. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and put it in a warm place. Let the dough rise till double in size ( about 1 hour ).
Preheat the oven to 200 degree C ( 400 degree F ). Then grease 2 baking dish.
In a large baking dish dissolve baking soda in the hot water. Set aside.
When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Flatten the dough slightly.
Divide the dough into 12 equal sizes. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape.
Once all the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel one at a time into the hot baking soda water solution and place them on the baking dish.
Once all the pretzels are on the baking dish, brush the top of the pretzels with egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with salt. (if you’d rather have cinnamon sugar pretzels, then don’t put the salt on).
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 8 minutes depending on size. Take them out and brush with melted butter. Then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if you had not put the salt earlier on.
Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving