Ingredients:
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
4 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup baking soda
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons coarse salt
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
3 teaspoon granulated garlic
3 teaspoons dehydrated onion

Directions:

In large bowl of stand mixer, stir together yeast, sugar and warm water; let stand 3 minutes. Add flour; mix with dough hook attachment until dough forms a smooth, elastic ball. Grease large bowl with canola oil; place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Place in cold oven 50 minutes or until doubled in size.

Remove bowl from oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Gently push fist into dough to deflate; divide dough into about 35 1 1/2 inch pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece of dough into round ball then shape into a nugget.

Pour baking soda into 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot; fill with water. Stir with whisk until baking soda is dissolved. Heat to boiling.

Line large cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper. Drop each nugget into the boiling baking soda-water mixture for 30 seconds. Place on cookie sheet. Brush dough with egg; sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion, garlic and salt. Bake 12 or until golden brown. Serve warm.

My thoughts:

You all know how much I love “everything” related foods thanks to last year’s turkey and rolls so when I had a craving for soft pretzels, I decided to be creative and stray from the usual salt-topped. Instead I topped them with all of the seeds and flavors that make everything bagels so great!

Pretzels sound tricky but they are actually quite easy. They only rise once (and for less than an hour!) then a quick dip in baking soda-spiked water magically turns them into pretzels and not just baked dough. Added bonus of making your own? They taste so much fresher than one ones from the grocer’s freezer or the street hawker.

Note: if you’d rather, you can make pretzel shapes instead of nuggets. It should make about 12 pretzels.