How to Win Friends and Influence People: Soft Pretzels

Making these pretzels will without question boost your popularity amoung family and friends. I like myself better when I make them. A warm, salty soft pretzel is dreamy. Pair with some spicy mustard and your favorite beer. It's the perfect afternoon treat. Or morning. Or evening.

I do admit, it's challenging to make. The pretzels will never taste bad, but making the proper shape will take a few tries.

4 1/2 cups bread flour or '00' flour
1 TB Salt
1 TB Honey
1 TB Olive Oil1 TB Baking Soda
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 package active dry yeast

Mix salt, honey and dry active yeast with warm water. Water must be warm to activate yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes. The mixture should be foamy like the head of a pint of Guinness. If it's not, you need to start over. The yeast is not working. Yeast comes in packages of 3. If one of the packets is bad, typically the whole group is. Sad :(

Then add the olive oil and mix, and then add the flour. You may need to add more water so that a dough forms.

Pour dough on counter and knead for 5 mins. Then, place dough into an oiled bowl and cover. Set aside for 60 minutes. The dough will have doubled in size. Punch it down and knead for a minute. You just want the pockets of air to be out of the dough.

Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll out each piece. Each piece should be about 18-20 inches in length (when rolling these out with my little nephews, I suggested they try to make the dough look like a snake). Make into the pretzel shape, and set aside. This is the most difficult part of the recipe. The dough can be difficult to handle. Avoid using a lot of flour, it only makes the dough more difficult to work. The dough should be sticky, but not so sticky that it sticks to your hands.

Bring 5 cups of water to a boil with a TB of baking soda. Boil each pretzel for 1 minute, and then place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle with kosher salt, and bake at 450 for 25-35 minutes.