Introduction: Soft Pretzels (Jumbo)

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About: I'm one hell of a guy, what can I say, hey and as a human being, I even feature a cranial capacity of 1350cc, how's that for feature listing?

My gf brought me home this recipe a while ago and she wanted to try making it with me. Our first try and these pretzels came out excellent, soft and chewy, yet salty. :P

With a little patience, you can make them too with little prep time! These are a delicious snack and we plan on making them again soon. Enjoy the photos everyone!!

Step 1: Ingredients:

The ingredients are fairly confusing in here as a lot of them are in mL instead of teaspoons or tablespoons but I will convert them as I go.

* 1000 mL (about 4 and 1/2 cups) All Purpose Flour
* 15 mL (3 teaspoons) Quick Rise Yeast (1 pkg.)
* 5 mL (1 teaspoon) Salt
* 300 mL (about 1.2 cups) Hot Water
* 15 mL (3 teaspoons) Vegetable Oil
* 25 mL (5 teaspoons) Honey
* 15 mL (3 teaspoons) Room temperature Water
* 25 mL (5 teaspoons) Sesame Seeds ~ Not necessary, I didn't use them.
* 2 mL (1/2 teaspoon) Coarse Salt ~ Add or Remove as taste desires.
* Shortening (Butter or Margerine)

Equipment you should have out:

* Saucepan (The sheet you plan on baking the pretzels on)
* Large Mixing Bowl
* Small measuring spoons
* Measuring cup
* Knife, Fork, Wooden Spoon, Pastry/BBQ Brush, Rubber Spatula

Step 2: Preheat Oven

Start by Preheating your oven to 220C (425 F) 

Step 3: Measure Flour

Now that your oven is heating up while you make the dough, measure out 1000 mL of flour (4 and 1/2 cups) setting aside a little extra for later when you're kneading the dough.

Combine flour, quick rise yeast, and regular salt (not the course salt) together in a large mixing bowl.

Step 4: Now We Introduce Wet to Dry

Check the temperature of the water, it should be hot, but not boiling, measure out 300 mL (1.2 cups). Stir in the vegetable oil and honey. Add to dry ingredients, stirring well with a wooden spoon (although I got fed up and started kneading it right away). Scrape sides of bowl with a rubber spatula to get all the flour off if needed.

The flour we "set aside" earlier is used while you're kneading it. Knead the dough for 5-6 minutes or until it starts getting "tough" but still elastic. You may or may not need it at this point, only add flour if the dough is sticky and wet. It should be a smooth, elastic dough, and it should also look kinda like silly putty when you stretch it apart until it snaps (if you know what silly putty is). Remember you can also add a bit of water to it if it's too "dry".

Step 5: Time to Roll Roll Roll!

After you have kneaded the dough for a satisfactory amount of time (again, 6-7 minutes), it is time to cut the dough. Shape it into a kinda round shape just to make it easier and cut it into 8 sections. Yes, like a pie.

Grease your baking pan with your shortening of choice (I used Butter and gave the pan a healthy coating). Take each "piece" of your pie and roll roll roll the dough between your hands, I aimed for a diameter about the size of my thumb, and it turns out the size was just right.

Simply curl the dough afterwards and twist the ends together with a bit of water on your fingers to "glue" the dough together temporarily until they bake.

It's time to put that egg to use. Beat the egg and a bit of water together (we want it to be runny, but not diluted). When that's well beaten together, use a Pastry/BBQ brush to brush it onto the tops of the pretzels. You can be generous with this, as it will only add a nice golden brown crust to your pretzels. Also, now is the time to add your coarse/rock salt, according to tastes! Mmmmmmmm.

Bake your pretzels for 15-20 minutes. I also opted to put my oven on "broil" for 4-5 minutes, giving my pretzels the PERFECT golden crust!

Step 6: Reap Your Hard Earned Pretzels!

 After 15-20 minutes, and if you chose to broil the tops aswell such as I, you are now ready to take the Pretzels out of the oven and chow down.

For our first try (this is a recipe I've used but modified it a bit to my liking), it turned out excellent! We definitely want to make more and they didn't last more than a couple hours. A must-eat while hot!