Sunday Funday Football Food!!

This week's Sunday Funday football food is (excuse me while I drool lol!) Soft Pretzels!! Soft pretzels are that weakness I have when I literally don't even want anything to eat and I run to the mall and as SOON as I smell those darn things I am salivating, starving and have to run to the nearest soft pretzel stand!!! I love them all! Salt, cinnamon & sugar, dipped in cheese--you name it, I love it! For this week's recipe I am just making a basic soft pretzel with butter and salt and then we are gonna dip them in nacho cheese. Some of you saw the photos on Facebook of the last time I made these, but I will post recent photos when I make these on Sunday! Such a cheap and DELISH snack on Football day!! You will want to prepare these a bit ahead of time though, because the dough takes a while to prepare! This is the recipe I use:

What You Need:
1 1/2 C. warm water
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 C. bread flour (you can just use self-rising flour if you don't have bread flour)
3 C. regular flour
2 C. warm water
2 Tbsp baking soda
To taste, coarse salt
2 - 4 Tbsp butter (melted)


What To Do:
Warm water to a comfortable temperature, not too hot or you will kill the yeast, and not too cold or it won't activate...very picky this yeast! Sprinkle yeast into water in mixing bowl and stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Continue to stir this often while the dough is rising.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. The thinner you make these ropes, the more like the 'mall pretzels' they will be :) Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again for about 30 min. Bake in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and whatever else you like and ENJOY! YUMMY!!