Soft Pretzel Knots

Directions

• Make the dough. Add the flour to a large mixing bowl with the yeast and sugar, and mix until well combined. Add the butter and the water and mix with the dough hook until well combined.
  Knead for 5 minutes on medium until the dough is smooth and stretchy. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time until it perfectly pulls away from the side of the bowl. Wrap the bowl and let it rest in a warm place until it double in size. This will take about 1h, but it depends on the room temperature
• Reset. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and divide it into 12 balls of 75g each (it doesn’t have to be perfect). Roll out each ball to a rope (about 25cm) and tie it into a knot. Now you have two ends that you should tuck underneath. Let pretzel knots rest for about 15 minutes. You can cover them with cling film greased with butter.
• Boil. Now the most important part: soda bath! this is the part that gives the pretzel their color and traditional flavor. Bring water to a boil (see ingredients) and add baking soda to it. Wait for the water to boil again and add 3 pretzels at the time. Boil each side of the pretzel for about 15 seconds – turn them upside down with the help of a slotted spatula. Then move the pretzel to a baking dish lined with parchment paper. This allows water to drip away. Continue with all the pretzels.
• Preheat the oven to 180°-200°.
• Bake. After, transfer the pretzel to another baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  Whisk the egg with 3 drops of vinegar and brush the egg wash onto the surface of each pretzel (I’m doing this because traditionally pretzels are boiled in water with lye, which gives a mahogany color, while baking soda doesn’t give such a strong color to the pretzels, so they need a little help in my opinion). Bake 6 pretzel at the time for about 15 minutes. Let them cool a bit before eating.