Judging by the yummy pretzel places in the malls now I thought that soft pretzels were kind of a new thing, until I found out there is a recipe in the Old Mennonite Treasury. Under Mennonite Dishes, page 11, Mrs Neustaedter posted a recipe called Kringel. reading her instructions, sounds like she may be making bagels, but the recipe also sounds a lot like the soft pretzel recipes I looked up on line. I divided her recipe in half and mixed it up in my kitchen machine with a dough attachment. A kitchen aid would be good. The other thing I changed, the second time I made them, was to add baking soda to the boiling water process. I'm not sure if it made a big difference, but I thought I'd try it since I did not have alum (which her recipe calls for) and I noticed that to be a natural ingredient in other similar recipes. The ones pictured on the right have a sprinkling of coarse sugar and cinnamon.
Ingredients:
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 1/2 cups flour
- 1 Tbsp instant yeast
- water, sugar and soda for boiling
- sesame seeds and/or coarse sugar and cinnamon for topping. If using coarse salt, go easy.
Method:
- Melt butter and add milk to heat. Add water to make combined liquids warm, not hot.
- In mixing bowl, beat eggs and slowly add warm liquids.
- Add salt, sugar, some of the flour combined with yeast and then the rest of the flour.
- Knead about 5 minutes until smooth.
- Cover and let rise about 45 - 50 minutes.
- Divide in half and then each half into ten segments.
- Roll segments into 15 inch ropes. Doing the rolling works best on non floured surface. I dampened my mat by wiping it with a wet cloth.
- Take each rope and shape it into a fancy figure six.
- Take the top down to cross, then twist crossed segments.
- Put on parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise about 15 minutes.
- During this time heat about 5 cups water with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup baking soda. Bring to boil.
- With slotted spoon dip each pretzel into the boiling water, one or two at a time and boil 45- 60 seconds on each side. Return to baking sheet. Sprinkle with desired topping.
- Bake in preheated 450 F oven for 5 - 10 minutes until golden. Enjoy warm.
PS Another great way is to bake them plain and drizzle them with a cinnamon icing glaze. (blend icing sugar, milk and cinnamon) Can be frozen plain, reheated and iced.
