This is one of my favorite no-knead techniques so you get the results with little work. You mix your dough by hand and let it ferment overnight it takes the guesswork out of dough making. We are going to make the dough in a large bowl, add in your flour, salt, sugar, and yeast, and mix all the ingredients. Use bread flour in this recipe because it yields you a soft pretzel, however, if you like yours crispy or kind of the drier side then use all-purpose flour.
To the dry ingredients, add water to mix it until the dough forms. Use your hand to mix the dough because you can feel how wet or dry your dough is and you know at what stage it is at. Make sure your bowl is large because we are going to prove the dough and it’s going to rise to maybe 2 to 3 times the amount. Cover the dough tightly in cling wrap and make sure that no air gets in there and then lay a tea towel on top.
Leave it at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours, it’s going to ferment and get lovely and bubbly and we are going to be ready to make our soft pretzels in no time. Flour the baking surface and turn the dough onto the table, lightly flour the top of your dough and then just knock out the air. So take the cutter and slice up the dough for pretzels, just try to make them as even as possible, they don’t have to be perfect.
Once you cut your dough, you might want to sprinkle some flour on them so they don’t get too sticky. To shape the pretzels, take one of the long pieces of dough and just roll it out. To get your soft pretzel nice and long and even shape, we are going to make them into a half-moon turn the ends over on each other and then push them down on the other side of the dough.
Make sure they have enough space in between them because when it bakes, those will get smaller so you want to make sure you have a good definition and a nice-looking pretzel. Once done, take the soft pretzel put it straight into the water and just cook for 30 seconds to give it the flavour and texture we’re used to when it comes to pretzels.
Brush them with an egg yolk mixture to give them a nice golden colour then toss them in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit until they are golden brown.
Ingredients;
- 3 cups (42Og/ 15oz) strong flour/ bread flour
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp yeast (I used actively dried yeast)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 10 ½ ounces water
- To poach the pretzels: 6 cups (1 1/2 litre) water
- 6 tsp baking soda
- Egg wash
- Salt
- Melted butter, to brush pretzels
Instructions;
- In a large bowl add in the flour.
- Put yeast on one side of the bowl and salt and sugar on the side of the bowl. if you add the salt on top of the yeast it will deactivate that yeast and your dough will not rise.
- Add in water and mix to form a dough. That’s it, your dough is done!
- Wrap the bowl tightly with film wrap and lay a bowl over it. Put it in a dry place at room temp and leave overnight.
- A minimum of 12 hours, but up to 18 hours and let time do its magic. I do 18 hours.
- The next day your double will smell boozy and bubbling. It is pretty incredible.
- Turn out onto a floured surface and divide into 9 balls and let it and relax for 2 minutes
- To shape: take each piece of dough and begin rolling them on the counter. Bang the dough on the counter like
- I do in the video and they will just naturally get longer and longer. Keep going until you reach 24 inches (60 cm).
- Twist the ends of the dough and press onto the opposite sides of the pretzel. Put straight into boiling water with baking soda and poach for JUST 30 seconds, then place on a baking tray.
- This boiling step is the secret to firm skin and adds that definite pretzel flavour.
- Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt
- Bake 450oF (225oC) for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Serve immediately and enjoy it.
