Auntie Ann's Style soft pretzels

My family loves this recipe....

 They're great with cream cheese or melted cheddar cheese.....

 Sometimes we do cinnamon and sugar which is really yummy....and if we do that I make cream cheese icing with some cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla....

Soft Pretzel Recipe

1. Mix a package of yeast + 1 tsp of sugar with 1 &1/4 cups of warm water and let stand for 10 min.

2. In a large mixing bowl mix: 

~4 cups of flour (5th cup of flour if needed) 

~1/4 cup of sugar

~1 &1/2 tsp of kosher salt

3. Make a well in the center of the ingredients above and add:

~1 melted Tbs of butter

~Yeast mixture from the first step

4. Knead dough until smooth, spray a bowl with cooking spray and flip dough to coat, cover and let rise 1 hour.

5. Dissolve 1/2 cup of baking soda in 4 cups of hot water.

6. Punch down dough then shape dough into desired shape (I usually do bread stick style because they're quick and easy and they bake quicker)

7.  Once you've shaped all your dough dip each one into the baking soda bath then sprinkle with kosher salt OR cinnamon and sugar...

8.  Bake at 420 deg. for 8 min. after removing from the oven brush bread with melted butter