Pretzel Rolls

There is nothing in the world like freshly baked bread or rolls for dinner. Really, it's freshly baked anything. Bread, muffins, cupcakes, you name it.

Soft pretzels are a wonderful little treat, especially when you get them from the street carts while you are out and about, but it has escaped me for years on how to duplicate that flavour. They always turned out more like buns with salt on them. Which is not the same at all.

Having the new mixer in the house has forced me to bake more. I'm not much of a baker, because if I bake stuff, then I'm going to eat it. My interest still lies in cooking, but until I save up some money for the attachments I want, I'll be baking.

In the case of the pretzel rolls, this works out pretty well.

You'll need:

• 1 1/4 cup Non-Alcoholic Beer, flat 
• 3 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• 2 Tbsp Butter, melted
• 1 pk (1 Tbsp) Yeast, (quick rise is best)
• 3-4 cups Flour
• 2 tsp Salt

• 4 litres Water
• 1/2 cup Baking Soda
• Kosher Salt

Mix together the beer, brown sugar, milk, butter and yeast. Add the salt and gradually add the flour one cup at a time, blend together until a stiff dough forms. 

If you are using a mixer, switch to the dough hooks and mix until dough is smooth, about 8-10 minutes. If you are kneading the dough by hand, turn out onto a floured surface and knead well, 15-18 minutes. If the dough is too sticky in either case, add small amounts of flour.

Place dough into a greased bowl, cover and let rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size.

Punch down, turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and knead for about a minute. Divide into 12 equal sized pieces, shape into smooth balls, place on ungreased baking sheet, cover and allow to rise for half an hour.

Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large pot.  Pre-heat oven to 425F.

Add rolls to the water in batches of 2 or 3, cook until they puff up turning them over once. When you remove the rolls from the water, place them on paper towel to soak up the excess water.  

Arrange the rolls on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut an X into the top and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until browned.

If you want to make smaller rolls, adjust the cooking time as required.

That's my taste on it.