My bunch loved ‘em! I found this recipe in a cookbook put together by Sonlight Curriculum. It was submitted by a home-schooling mom named Melanie, the same gal whose cinnamon roll recipe I posted here.
Buttery Soft Pretzels
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1¼ cups warm water (110º F)
5 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup white sugar
1½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
¼ cup kosher salt, for topping
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, ½ cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes.
Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough into the bowl, turn to coat with oil. 
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size – about one hour.
Preheat oven to 450º. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a thin rope and twist into a pretzel shape (I didn’t roll mine out very thin so my pretzels required a couple more minutes of baking time.) Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda water and place onto a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned. If you made your pretzels fat and chunky like I did, you’ll want to lay a piece of foil on top of them after the first 8 minutes and bake them an additional 2 minutes so they are not doughy in the center.
Gobble them up…they are best eaten on the same day!
How do eat all this stuff and retain your girlish figure?
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Comment by Mamapua — March 31, 2008 @ 10:51 am
Well Mamapua…I make sure that the timer chimes loud and clear so they all come a-runnin’ when they’re fresh out of the oven. However, by the time they get to the kitchen I usually have one pretzel in my mouth and three in my hands. They have to chase me around the kitchen to get their share – this keeps my legs in shape! Then when they catch me, we play tug of war until they finally pry theirs from my ever desperate grasp – great for the biceps! And of course, the whole time this is going on, I’ve been chewing on my own pretzel – keeping the jaw line nice and sleek. But this is nothing…you should see what happens when I make chocolate cream pie!
Comment by candid reflections — March 31, 2008 @ 6:12 pm