After trying a bunch of recipes that claimed to imitate Auntie Anne’s pretzels and finding myself unimpressed by each, I finally found one that truly approximates the addictive flavor and texture of the real thing. Inspired by Yammy’s Noshery food blog.
Ingredients: [‘whole milk’, ‘active dry yeast’, ‘light brown sugar’, ‘butter’, ‘flour’, ‘table salt’, ‘baking soda’, ‘warm water’, ‘coarse salt’, ‘butter’]
Quantity of Ingredients: [“”,”2 cups whole milk”,”2 (1 1/2 tablespoon) packets active dry yeast (use the entire two packets, donu0027t focus on the actual measurement)”,”6 tablespoons light brown sugar”,”4 tablespoons butter, melted “,”4 1/2 cups flour”,”2 teaspoons table salt”,””,”1/3 cup baking soda”,”3 cups warm water”,” coarse salt”,””,”8 tablespoons butter, melted “]
Number of Servings: 12
Steps: [‘Warm up the milk in the microwave or on the stove for just about one and a half minutes, to about 110º.’, ‘Stir the yeast into the milk and let it sit for about 3 minutes.’, ‘Add the butter and sugar to the milk and stir to mix.’, ‘Add the flour to the milk, about 1 cup at a time and add the fine salt as you add the flour. Mix w/ a spoon.’, ‘Knead for about 10 minutes with a stand mixer, or by hand.’, ‘Put kneaded dough in a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap.’, ‘Let rise for 1 hour in a moist, warm place until doubled in size.’, ‘Preheat the oven to 450º.’, ‘Punch down dough and divide into 12 lumps — this is easiest if you divide it in half, cut each half into three lumps, then cut each lump in half.’, ‘Combine the warm water and baking soda in a shallow dish (e.g. and 8×8 baking dish); stir/whisk until the baking soda is as dissolved as possible.’, ‘Roll all 12 lumps of dough out as thin as you can — they will shrink up quickly so getting the thinnest ropes possible is key.’, ‘Form the dough into pretzel shapes, then quickly dip in the baking soda water. I found this works best when you roll out 2-3 pretzels, dip them, then put them on the baking sheet.’, ‘Place rolled, dipped pretzels on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.’, ‘Bake for about 7-11 minutes or until browned.’, ‘Dip each in the melted butter while hot.’]