Homemade Pretzels

I love pretzels, and I found this recipe today. I'll probably wait until tomorrow, although pretzels for dessert tonight don't sound too bad...

Laura’s Amazing Soft Pretzels:

Ingredients:

1 c. water
2 T. yeast
2 t. honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 t. salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
butter
salt

(You can make these with white flour and white sugar if you want to have a delicious mound of empty calories…but I have found that using these healthier ingredients does not make us like these pretzels any less!)

Okay, here are the directions for preparing the pretzels that are to die for:

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, 2 T. yeast and 2 t. honey. Stir this together and kind of mush the yeast around. Let this sit for a few minutes while you melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup honey, 4 t. salt and 2 1/2 cups of milk. Heat this to 120 degrees. Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir. Stir in 8 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time. (add more if you need it) Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. Plop it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours. Pull it out of the bowl and knead it a few times to get the air out.

Pull a ball of dough, about the size of your fist off and get ready to make your very first pretzel! (such a proud moment) Roll into a snake and shape into a pretzel (there are step by step photo's on the blog in the link) Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan.

Right when you take the pretzels out of the oven, slather them with butter. Lay it on thick. Don’t hold back. Shake salt over the tops.