Buttery Salted Maple Pretzels

Ingredients

1 ½ cups warm water

3 tbsps brown sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

2 sticks salted butter, room temperature

1 ½ kosher salt

5 cups of flour, sifted

12 cups of water

⅔ cup baking soda

1 egg, for egg wash

1 cup maple syrup

1 tsp honey

Flake salt, for finishing/garnish

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer, add mix warm water, active dry yeast, brown sugar, and white sugar to the bowl. Let this site for about 10 minutes, until mixture is foamy.
2. Add one stick of butter and 4 cups of flour, one at a time and mix with the dough hook. Add another ½ cup of flour once all ingredients are mixed together. Dough may be sticky, add 1 tbsp at a time until dough is smooth to touch. Allow dough to mix for about 5 minutes.
3. Sprinkle flour onto a counter space and knead dough into a ball. Add dough to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise until it has doubled in size, this can be expedited by putting dough in a warm place. (I usually turn the oven on it's lowest temperature for about 4 minutes, turn it off, and put the dough in there to rise - but this is tricky because you don't want to kill the yeast if the temperature is too high)
4. Once dough has doubled, pull dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 6 even pieces. Roll each piece of dough into long ropes, about 18-22 inches long.
5. Bring water and baking soda to a slow boil. BE CAREFUL - baking soda and water will bubble up and explode so turn the heat down when needed.
6. Take each rope of dough and make a U shape, crossing the ends over 2-3 times, and flip upside down to secure the pretzel ends. (Here's a quick tutorial if this doesn't make sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwy9c0foFTc)
7. Dip one pretzels at a time into the water and baking soda mixture for 3 minutes each.
8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. Remove pretzel from baking soda water and add to baking sheet.
10. Beat an egg and brush each pretzel with the egg, ensuring the entire pretzel is covered. Sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Pretzels should be a deep brown color. Watch closely past the 15 minute mark because pretzels will brown quickly past this point.
11. Remove from oven allow pretzels to cool.
12. In a small sauce pan, add 1 stick of butter and maple syrup and melt them together. Drench pretzels in this sauce and sprinkle with flake salt.
13. Eat 🙂