Soft Pretzels

YUM!! My friend Rebecca posted this recipe on her blog and it looked like a great kid-friendly recipe. We made them yesterday and will definitely be repeating these again soon!!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
3 3/4 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons pretzel salt or grill seasoning
1 heaping Tablespoon baking soda (add it to the boiling water just before throwing in the pretzel dough!)

Directions:
- Stir together sugar, yeast, and 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water in a measuring cup, then let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
- Whisk together 3 1/2 cups flour and 1 tablespoon table salt in a large bowl.
- Add yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it forms a dough.
- Dust work surface with 1 tablespoon flour, then turn out dough and knead, gradually dusting with just enough additional flour to make a smooth sticky dough, about 8 minutes.
- Return dough to bowl and cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, then let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
- Turn out dough onto a clean work surface and cut into 8 equal pieces.
- Using your palms, roll 1 piece back and forth on a clean dry work surface into a rope about 24 inches long.
- Twist dough into a pretzel shape.
- Preheat oven to 425
- Transfer pretzel with your hands to an oiled baking sheet and form 7 more pretzels in same manner with remaining dough, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Let pretzels stand, uncovered, about 20 minutes.
- Bring a wide 6-quart pot of water to a boil.
- Once boiling, add heaping tablespoon of baking soda. The baking soda will help the pretzels brown. It will also kind of foam up quickly, so just watch out for your arms and hands.
- Carefully add 2 (maybe 3) pretzels, 1 at a time, to boiling water and cook, turning over once with tongs, until pretzels are puffed and shape is set, about 3 minutes.
- Transfer parboiled pretzels to a rack to cool.
- Repeat with remaining pretzels.
- Arrange pretzels on greased baking sheet.
- Brush pretzels lightly with some of egg and sprinkle with pretzel salt.
- Bake until golden brown and lightly crusted, about 35 minutes.
- Serve warm.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:
- The baking time and temp in the recipe above were pretty accurate for my oven. But watch your pretzels carefully if you know your oven cooks hotter. (Rebecca noted this on her blog.)
- These go fast, so I would encourage doubling the recipe!