Home made Mall Pretzels

After departing from the states, I really missed soft mall pretzels. These are great  with a bit of pretzel salt or coated with garlic salt or onion salt. Once finished, dip the hot pretzel in a hot beer cheese sauce(recipe to come), peanut butter, mustard, melted butter or whatever you fancy. So I looked around and finally after a collaboration of different recipes I came up with this:

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups warm water (45 degrees C) 
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 8 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup kosher salt or Atlantic sea salt for topping

Recipe:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until the yeast has dissolved and bubbles appear, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center, or place in your mixer; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two more tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
3. Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees C. Grease 2 baking sheets.
4. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in 4 cups hot water; set aside. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape.
5. Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda-hot water solution and place pretzels on baking sheets. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
6. Bake in preheated oven until browned, about 8 minutes.

These pretzels freeze nicely so I recommend to make a double batch and enjoy!