Friday Food Craft: Pretzel Rolls

Friday Food Craft time again, and this week's installment features pretzel rolls! If you tried your hand at my homemade bagel recipe, you will find that these are actually quite similar. These are even a little bit easier as far as forming into their final shape. Also, if you like soft pretzels these will definitely get you your fix. I like to have these as burger buns, but you could just as easily eat them plain or with a dipping sauce, or make teeny tiny rolls as pretzel bites (watch the cook time If you try this, they won't need as long I am sure).


For this recipe you will need:


3/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees F)
1 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (not instant yeast)
2 1/4 cup flour
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp salt


1/4 cup baking soda (will be added to boiling water)
1 egg, beaten
Salt to top rolls (I used kosher flake salt as I had it on hand, but you could certainly use Pretzel salt, which is larger and a bit stronger in salty flavor)



Start by putting your warm water and yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand about 5 minutes until the yeast foams up a bit (I generally add my sugar at this point as well, but you can add it with the rest of the dry ingredients if you want). If you don't have a stand mixer, place it into a mixing bowl instead.



Add the flour, salt, sugar(if you haven't already added it) and butter and mix with the dough hook attachment until combined. Once most of the flour is incorporated I generally turn my mixer to a medium high speed and let it mix for about a minute to develop some gluten. This makes for a chewier pretzel roll. (Again, if you don't have a stand mixer, you can mix by hand, or use a hand mixer with a dough hook attachment).



Cover with a clean towel and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Separate your dough into 8 pieces and form into balls by pulling the sides to the center and pinching to seal. Place the formed rolls onto a parchment lined baking sheet, seam side down. Cover and allow to rise again for about 30 minutes.



Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Fill a large saucepan with about 2 quarts of water and add 1/4 cup baking soda. Bring water to a boil and boil each roll about 1 minute, turning halfway to poach both sides.



Place rolls back on baking sheet (seam side down--we want our rolls to look pretty) and brush the tops with beaten egg. Lightly salt tops of rolls and then cut a slit or "X" into the top of each one. Bake in the center rack of your oven for 15 to 20 minutes.



This recipe makes about 8 dinner rolls. If you want to make burger buns, you may want to divide your dough into only 5 or 6 rolls depending on burger size (you could get about 10 sliders out of this recipe).



Enjoy!