Soft Pretzels
variation on a recipe from the Culinary Institute of America - makes 12 pretzels

I've worked long and hard on this recipe. I tried to simplify, to find shortcuts. I tried baking them on a parchment-lined baking sheet instead of directly on the wire racks (because they would sort of grow into the wire racks as they baked and become difficult to remove); but baking on a baking sheet rendered pretzels with flat bottoms. Pretzels should be round. I thought I could apply the warm water solution neatly with a pastry brush, instead of messily submerging each pretzel; but that resulted in inferior browning...You can employ these shortcuts if you like, but these pretzels are so good they justify all the time and steps involved.
This recipe used to intimidate me. But after making it a few times, I am completely at ease with it now. The most difficult part is finding the time to roll and shape 12 pretzels. But if you can share that task with the kids, it's quite a lot of fun.

2 teaspoons quick rise or active dry yeast
2-1/4 cups lukewarm water, divided
3/4 teaspoon malt syrup, dark corn syrup or honey
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon canola oil
 7 cups all-purpose flour, (about 2 lbs.) reserve 3/4 cup for kneading
3 cups warm water
3/4 cup sugar , (5.25 oz.)
3 tablespoons baking soda
coarse salt, for sprinkling
1 Put 2 teaspoons of yeast in large mixing bowl. Pour over 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Let mixture sit until yeast shows signs of activity, 5 to 10 minutes.
2 Add remaining 2 cups water, the malt syrup, sugar, salt, buttermilk and oil. Stir in most of the flour (reserving 3/4 cup), until you have a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding reserved flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
3 Lightly oil a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover with a clean, damp towel; let rise in a warm place until just puffy but not doubled in bulk, 45 to 60 minutes.
4 Line 2 baking sheets with parchment, or dust heavily with flour.
5 Gently deflate the dough. Turn out onto work surface and divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Keeping remaining pieces covered, roll one piece at a time into a 36-inch rope, lightly flouring work surface if necessary. Shape into a pretzel... lift one end in each hand, twist at about center and bring down each end on top of pretzel (see photo below), or make up your own design. Place pretzels 2-inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
6 Let pretzels rise, uncovered, until slightly puffy, 20-30 minutes. Then refrigerate, uncovered until dough feels leathery, 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450°.
7 Using a pastry brush, lightly oil 2 wire racks, or coat them generously with nonstick spray.
8
In a bowl large enough to dip a pretzel into, add the 3/4 cup of sugar and baking soda to 3 cups of warm water. Whisk together until sugar is dissolved.
Leave one sheet of pretzels in refrigerator while you prepare and bake the other. Dip pretzels one at a time into the warm water solution, then place directly on prepared wire rack. Sprinkle evenly with salt. With a sharp paring knife or clean razor blade, make a 2 to 3-inch horizontal slash across the bottom of each pretzel. (I am not sure why we do this. The CIA does not explain. The slash must give pretzel some room to expand. But if you want to skip this step, pretzel quality would probably not suffer too much).
9
10 Place the wire rack directly onto center oven rack. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until richly browned. These are great the day they are baked. Freeze leftovers. Reheat frozen pretzels on a baking sheet in a 350° oven for 10 to 15 minutes.