Auntie Anne's Pretzels (Copycat)

I adore Auntie Anne's pretzels...and I don't ever seem to get them enough! Which is why I appreciate a good copycat recipe!





What you need:

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 pkg. active dry yeast
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups water
2 tbsp. baking soda
Coarse salt or cinnamon-sugar
2 to 4 tbsp. butter, melted
Directions:

(Note: No pictures on this one.)

Dissolve yeast into warm water. Add sugar, salt and stir.
Add flour and knead until the dough is elastic and smooth.
Let rise for 45 minutes or so.
Close to the end of your rising period, mix 2 tbsp. baking soda and 2 cups of hot water into a large bowl, stir often.
After dough has risen, cut off pieces of dough (pizza cutter works well) and roll into long rope.
Twist pretzel (link to a video tutorial below!) and dip into soda solution. Set bottom of pretzels on a clean soft tea towel to "dry" a little bit. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake in oven at 450 for 10 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees at 5 minutes. Watch pretzels after rotation, when they are golden brown, they are done!
Brush with melted butter.
After the butter brushing, you can sprinkle with salt.
If you would like to do the cinnamon-sugar version, dip both sides of pretzel into melted butter and then cinnamon-sugar.
A quick video from an actual Auntie Anne's employee on how to twist pretzels properly - which I wish I would have done before hand because mine look funny - HERE. You can also find other tips on pretzels there :)