Pretzels

We have been eating pretzels as fast as I can make them. Even my husband likes them and he's not a bread person.

Ingredients:
6 1/2 C flour
3 Tbsp yeast
3 C lukewarm water
salt
2/3 C baking soda
coarse sea salt
egg white

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and let it sit while you measure and scoop the flour. Add yeast, water and salt to the flour and mix with your dough hook until it's a cohesive ball. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for two hours.

Two hours later..... (or the next day after you've refrigerated the dough or left it out and forgot about it)
Preheat the oven to 375. Bring 10 C water to a boil. Grab a ball of dough and roll out into a long rope. Shape like a pretzel or you could make a twisty stick or pretzel turds (whatever, I have small kids and they like poop related things). One batch of dough makes about 14 medium sized pretzels. Grease a big cookie sheet with lard. I tried olive oil once and the pretzels stuck to the pan. Add 2/3 C baking soda to your boiling pot of water.

Drop your pretzels, one at a time, into the boiling water. As soon as the pretzel floats, take it out with a slotted spoon or spatula and place on your baking sheet. Repeat 14 times.

Using a pastry brush, or your fingers, brush egg white onto the tops of the pretzels. Sprinkle with coarse salt. I always skip the egg whites, but I don't care about presentation. The egg whites will make your pretzels darken on the top and look more like the real thing. Bake at 375 until golden. About 20 min, but I've honestly never paid attention to how long they take to cook.