BUTTERY SOFT PRETZELS

BUTTERY SOFT PRETZELS
Recipe and photo: Enrica Cugno Swanepoel
FOOD LOVERS RECIPES
4 teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ¼ cups luke warm water
5 cups cake flour
¼ cup of sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon oil
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 cups hot water
coarse salt
2 tablespoons melted butter

Dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in some of the warm water, allow to froth (about 10 minutes).
In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar and salt, make a well in the centre, add the oil, remaining water and yeast mixture. Mix to form a dough (I mixed mine in a bread machine). If the mixture is to dry, add a little more water. Knead the dough until smooth (about 7 – 10 mins), cover the dough and allow to rise to double its size, about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 240ºC.
When the dough is double in size, turn it out onto a floured board and divide into around 14 equal size pieces. Roll each piece out into a sausage shape and twist into a pretzel shape or just make sticks.
Once the dough is shaped, pour the 4 cups of hot water in a bowl, stir in the bicarb and dip the raw pretzels into the hot water bath.
Place the pretzel onto a lined baking tray and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in the pre heated oven for about 8 mins until browned.
Once they come out of the oven, brush the tops with the melted butter and sprinkle with more salt if required. If you want a sweet version, don’t bake the pretzels with salt, when you remove them from the oven, brush with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Enjoy, it’s really not difficult to make.