Bavarian-style Soft Pretzels

The other night, after watching Throwdown! with Bobby Flay (the episode where he challenges the Pretzel Boys of Philly), my friend and I were inspired to make our own soft pretzels. The next morning, we found a simple Bavarian-style soft pretzel recipe on the BeerSmith blog -- it's the type of pretzel that Bobby made during the Throwdown.

The pretzel dough-making was easy. Just follow the directions in the recipe to mix and knead the dough, let it rise until doubled, then shape. The pretzels take a quick bath (15-20 seconds) in boiling baking soda-water solution and are ready to be sprinkled with delicious toppings -- we did some with salt only, some with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or Parmesan cheese, and one or two with a combo of everything.

Here's what they looked like after the water bath and the addition of the toppings.


They spent about 8 minutes in a 475 degree (F) oven and were ready to be ripped apart. We ate them plain, but you could dip them in mustard or a cheesy sauce. I would definitely repeat this recipe again. They were fantastic!