Soft Pretzels recipe

Some days just call for comfort food. These pretzels are tasty and are relatively easy to make. The smell of bread from the oven makes the entire house smell delicious.

The rapid breakdown of the simple carbohydrates in this recipe mean a quick boost in energy and conversion of the tryptophan into serotonin but there's a large surge in insulin, too. You probably ought to eat a protein with this snack; perhaps cheese or tuna or a bean dip.

Soft Pretzels

2 cups warm water
1 egg, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons (2 pkg) yeast
6 ½ to 7 ½ cups white flour
½ cup sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons water
¼ cup margarine
coarse salt

Measure warm water into large warm bowl. Sprinkle in yeast; stir until dissolved. Add sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, margarine, egg and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add enough additional flour to make a stiff dough. Cover bowl tightly with aluminum foil. Refrigerate 2 to 24 hours.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured board. Divide in half; cut each half into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into pencil shapes about 20 inches long. Shape into pretzels. Place on lightly greased baking sheets. Blend together egg yolk and 2 Tablespoons water; brush pretzels with egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk about 25 minutes.

Bake at 400° about 15 minutes, or until done. Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks. Makes 32 pretzels.