The prequel: I love ethnic traditions. I don't have what you could call a culturally intriguing heritage, though, so it's not always easy to get in touch with my ancestors. This year, however, I did a little research. Did you know the Germans eat a pretzel on New Years for good luck and prosperity in the coming year?  Yeaahhh...I'm ALL OVER that one! Soft pretzels have always been on my cooking bucket list, and I was invited over to my friends' place for New Year's Eve, so I decided to give it a go. There's nothing quite like having an audience on a first attempt...so ...no pressure. 

Pre-adventure Jitters: There's evidently a trick to the roll, twist, and knot. Everything I've read has warnings about this, pay close attention to that, it's gonna be rough platitudes. And as we've discussed many times, I'm not a patient person. This could go well, but it could be a complete disaster I've already committed, though soooo…armed with the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens, and an immense gratitude for understanding and adventurous friends the adventure begins.

The Adventure: The great thing about a simple recipe is there's almost no shopping to be done. I have everything but the coarse salt. How hard could that be to find, right? I head to the local store and scan the shelves. It's New Years Eve, so I'm pretty last minute, but coarse salt isn't exactly a popular item to buy. Orrrr so I thought. I walk down the spice aisle and find a COMPLETELY EMPTY SHELF! There's been a run on coarse salt! Who knew this was such a popular thing! I start digging through the spices to the left and the right and find one salt grinder shoved into a dark and lonely corner. One is all I need, soooo SCORE! I'm set to begin.

Since I'm doing the finishing somewhere else, it makes the timing a bit tricky, but I'm planning to pack it up during the 'punch down and rest' step, so fingers crossed. The prep goes well. I use my bread maker on the dough setting for the heavy lifting. If you've never cheated like that, I'd highly recommend it. Seriously. It's a total game changer when it comes to breads and baked goods. I put the dough into what looks like a massively oversized bowl, hop in the car, and get on the road. It's a 45 minute drive. I know the dough is going to rise on the way, but it was a MASSIVELY oversized bowl. Once there, I immediately open up the bag with my bowl annnddd it overflowed like a monster lava stream. Dough dribbling out over the edges like the swamp thing. This is where my understanding and adventurous friends are the best. I laugh...they laugh...and we start with the pretzel making.

According to the directions, you don't use any flour, just roll it out underneath your hands. The dough is sticky, and elastic, and I am NOT A PATIENT PERSON. The first attempt is shorter than the suggested 30" long, but we decide to give it a whirl anyway. I mean really, it looks like a the right size twisted and knotted. Underachieving pretzel #1 gets tossed in the hot water / baking soda pot and it swells up and shrinks all at the same time! How is that even possible! It looks like a big twisted mound of dough. Again...we laugh. That did not go as expected! I roll out pretzel #2 to the appropriate 30", twist, knot and we try again. The ends weren't tight enough and it comes completely undone during the swelling / shrinking mutation. Pretzel #3? Success. We set up an assembly line. One person rolls, one morphs, one eggs washes and salts. They go in the oven and we anxiously await pretzel yumminess.

They come out of the oven beautifully browned, but the moment of truth awaits and we all break off a piece and try them. Ohhhh yeahhh. Very good. Very very good. There was a steep learning curve, and cosmetically they're all pretty jacked up, but the taste is perfection. I do believe this will be an annual tradition now. On to the next adventure!

The Recipe

Classic Soft Pretzels

Ingredients

• ¾ cup milk
• ¼ cup water
• 1 ½ tablespoon sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 ⅓ - 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1 ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3 cup hot water
• ½ cup baking soda
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• Coarse salt* (optional)

Instructions

• In a small saucepan heat and stir milk, the 1/4 cup water, and the sugar over low heat until warm (110°F to 115°F). Pour into the large bowl of an electric mixer that has a dough hook. Sprinkle with yeast; let stand about 5 minutes or until foamy. Add 2 1/3 cups of the flour, the butter, and the 1 1/4 teaspoons salt. Using the electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, beat on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat on medium-low speed for 8 to 10 minutes or until a soft dough forms. (The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl but still be slightly sticky. If it is too sticky, beat in the additional flour.)
• Turn out dough onto a clean, dry work surface. Knead a few times by folding and pressing dough, turning dough to knead uniformly; shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour).
• Preheat oven to 450°F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet; set aside.
• Punch down dough. Turn out onto a clean, dry work surface. Divide dough into eight portions. Roll and stretch each portion into a 30-inch-long rope. (If the dough seems tight and does not want to stretch, cover and let rest about 10 minutes or until it relaxes.)
• To shape each pretzel, form each rope into a U-shape. Cross the ends over each other twice, then lift the ends across to the bottom of the U-shape (to form a pretzel shape); press to seal.
• In a deep bowl or pot slightly larger than each pretzel stir together the 3 cups hot water and the baking soda. Using a slotted spoon, lower pretzels, one at a time, into baking soda mixture for 10 seconds. Remove pretzels and place on paper towels to blot the bottoms dry. Arrange pretzels 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
• In a small bowl combine egg yolk and the 1 tablespoon cold water. Brush pretzels with egg yolk mixture. If desired, sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool slightly on a wire rack; serve warm.