This Recipe for Soft Homemade Jumbo Pretzels will win you a Stand Mixer *maybe*

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Okay, maybe you are already one of the lucky people that own a beautiful stand mixer,

but I'm not. I know you're probably thinking how can you NOT have one by now? Well, the

short answer is-I was never really a baker until now! Cooking? Oh yeah, I can whip up and

throw down in the kitchen like a good southern girl, but baking was not something I ever

really learned. Enter Trey West.

When Trey and I were first dating I was so excited to get to know his family! They are all

incredible, but that's a story for another time.. Besides being incredible people, the women in his family are EXCELLENT bakers! Trey grew up having homemade bread practically weekly from his mother, and don't get me started on his Nana! When I learned this, I instantly grew the desire to learn to bake bread! I watched his mother and his Nana on several occasions and collected family recipes. Enter Quarantine 2020.

Well, what better time to take the leap to learn how to bake? With all this time on my

hands, and no place to go, I was ready to try! The first problem I encountered was the fact

that I had no yeast, and it was sold out everywhere. My mother in law quickly solved that

problem when she mailed me a few packets of yeast through the good ol' US postal service!

When it arrived I felt so excited, but also nervous, because now I HAD to at least try!

My first attempt at baking bread was a family recipe for an English muffin style bread,

and a long facetime call with Susan. It actually turned out great, at least Trey enjoyed it. I

then made brownies, and focaccia bread, all the while doing this without a stand mixer. Enter

the recipe for Soft Jumbo Pretzels.

I decided to jump into making these pretzels without looking ahead in the recipe to see I needed a stand mixer-or very strong hands and arms to hand knead the dough..OOPS!

There I was with sticky dough and no choice but to hand knead it. So I did. Well, when Trey

began to smell the soft pretzels rising in the oven, I told him don't get too excited, I'm not

making these again without a stand mixer! He just nodded. Soon I removed the golden

brown pretzels from the oven and sprinkled them with a little sea salt, and served them to my husband. He took one bite and his face absolutely lit up! "Baby, I'll buy you a stand mixer!" The next words I heard were the words I had longed to hear!! Had I known that a little hand kneading and some soft jumbo pretzels would've done the trick-I would've made them long ago!

Here's the recipe!

Soft Homemade Jumbo Pretzels

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups of Warm Water

• 1 Packet of Instant Yeast

• 3 3/4 Cups of All Purpose Flour

• 1 Tablespoon of Sugar

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1 Large Egg

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Give the parchment paper a light spray with nonstick cooking spray!

2) In a large mixing bowl: use a spoon to mix yeast in warm water until dissolved. Then add sugar and salt to bowl and mix together. Stir until combined. Add flour to bowl one cup at a time and mix with wooden spoon until no longer sticky.

3) Dump dough onto floured surface and knead for about 3 minutes adding pinches of flour as necessary to form a ball. Depending on how jumbo you want your pretzels, divide the dough.

4) Roll each piece of dough into a rope with your fingers and on a floured surface. Wind the rope around into a pretzel shape. Line up formed pretzels and get ready to brush!

5) In a small bowl, beat the large egg. Then use a brush to coat the pretzels in the egg wash-both sides. Place on baking sheet.

6) Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, then broil for 3-5 minutes to brown the pretzels.

7) Enjoy your new stand mixer. haha jk.