Sweet and Salty Soft Pretzels

It was dinnertime Friday night and we were out of food. Tummies rumbling I searched in the fridge and found leftover dough from the boule recipe. A quick roll and shape and we had pretzels. August wanted his salty but the kids wanted them sweet. I found a combination of sweet and salty worked for me. The boys had fun shaping these themselves. They came out of the oven hot and fluffy. They tasted much better than the boules since they didn't have a hard crust.

Sweet and Salty Soft Pretzels

Makes 4 large pretzels

1 lb. of boule dough (1/4 of the full recipe found in Middle of the Week Bread post)

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

coarse salt for sprinkling

coarse sugar for sprinkling

unsalted butter (optional)

cinnamon (optional)

mustard (optional)

parchment paper

flour for dusting

1. Dust work surface with flour. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Dissolve baking soda in hot water in a medium bowl or pan.

3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

4. Take boule dough out of the fridge and place on work surface. Cut into 4 equal parts. Take a piece of dough and roll into a long snake shape. Twist it into a pretzel, heart, or other fun shape. Carefully dunk it into the baking soda solution. Place it on the baking sheet.

5. For sweet cinnamon pretzels, sprinkle with cinnamon and coarse sugar. For salty pretzels, sprinkle with coarse salt. For sweet and salty pretzels, sprinkle with coarse salt and sugar.

6. Bake for 8 minutes until browned.

7. For salty pretzels, brush with butter if you like. I also like to dip mine in dijon mustard.