Philly Style Pretzels Recipes

SOFT HOMEMADE PRETZELS

Steps:

• Stir yeast into 1 cup warm water in a large bowl; beat in flour, sugar, shortening, and salt to make a dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
• Place dough into a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down dough and divide into 12 equal-size pieces. Roll each piece into a rope 18 to 20 inches long.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.
• Shape each rope of dough into a pretzel on the prepared baking sheet; let pretzels rest for 5 minutes. Beat egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl and brush yolk mixture over each pretzel; sprinkle each with coarse salt.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pretzels are golden brown, about 15 minutes.

HOMEMADE SOFT PRETZELS

Steps:

• Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
• Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
• In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
• Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

HOMEMADE SOFT PRETZELS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 475. Dissolve yeast thoroughly in 1/4 cup of warm water. Mix in 1 tsp white sugar. Leave for 5-10 minutes or until yeast becomes foamy.
• Stir in the additional 1 cup of water.
• Combine 4 cups of flour and salt.
• Mix to combine flour and salt mixture with yeast and water mixture. The dough should be stiff and smooth, not sticky. If needed, add more flour to reach this consistency.
• Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it feels more elastic.
• Round the dough into a ball and place it back in the mixing bowl. Cover and place it in a warm area, allowing it to rise for 45 minutes to an hour.
• After dough has doubled in size, pinch off a small amount. Make a long coil for large homemade soft pretzels or short coils for pretzel knots.
• Make a heart shape or a figure 8 for regular pretzels and simply tie in a knot for mini pretzel knots. Wet the ends and pinch the dough a bit to get it to stick if needed.
• Place completed pretzel shapes on a baking sheet and allow to rise.
• Dissolve the baking soda in water on the stove top and bring it to a boil. I find a wider pot or even a wok works well for this, as the pretzels will float.
• Once the water comes to a boil, drop the pretzels in one at a time, one minute per side. (For the knots, you can put several in at a time.)
• Turn over after one minute.
• Remove and place on a cooling rack to dry off a bit.
• Once the pretzels have cooled for a moment, you can sprinkle Kosher salt if you please. (Add the salt too soon and it will melt. Add the salt too late and the dough will be dry and it won't stick.)
• Repeat for all remaining pretzels.
• Place all pretzels of the same size on a baking sheet.
• Place in oven and bake for 12 minutes for full-sized pretzels. Watch closely for soft pretzel knots as they are smaller and will likely take only 5 - 8 minutes.
• Remove from the oven when color matches a traditional soft pretzel. Cool and enjoy!

PHILLY-STYLE PRETZELS

Steps:

• Mix the sugar, water and yeast; stir to dissolve.
• (If you're using instant yeast, skip this step, simply combining all of the ingredients at once.) Add the white wheat flour, malt, salt, and enough unbleached flour to make a soft (but not sticky) dough.
• Knead well, place in a bowl, and let rise till doubled.
• Divide the dough into 16 pieces.
• Roll each piece into a log, and shape the logs into pretzels.
• In a large pot, boil together 6 cups of water and 2 tablespoons baking soda.
• Put 4 pretzels at a time into the boiling water, and cook for 1 minute.
• Transfer boiled pretzels to a lightly greased baking sheet.
• When all the pretzels have been cooked, paint them with an egg glaze (1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water) and sprinkle with salt or seeds (if desired), then bake in a preheated 450°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the pretzels are well-browned.

PHILLY STYLE SOFT PRETZELS

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in warm water in large mixing bowl.
• Stir in teaspoon salt, sugar and 2-cups of flour.
• Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour t make dough easy to handle.
• Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic. (about 5-minutes).
• Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover: let rise until doubled (about 60-minutes). Dough is ready if an indentation remains when touched.
• Heat oven to 425°.
• Punch down dough and cut into 16-equal parts. Roll each part into a rope about 18� long. Twist each rope into a pretzel shape.
• Brush pretzels with beaten egg and sprinkle coarse salt. Bake until pretzels are golden brown (about 15-20 minutes).
• If using self-rising flour omit 1-teaspoon of salt.