German Soft Pretzels

Recipe for Soft Pretzels (“Laugenbretzeln”)
adapted from Alton Brown's recipe for soft pretzels.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

• 1 1/2 cup of lukewarm water
• 1 package dry or fresh yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 oz melted butter
• 22 oz flour (about 4 1/2 cups)
• 2tsp salt

For the Lye bath and decoration:

• 40g (~1 1/3 oz.) food level Sodium lye (NaOH) in powder or pearls (in the US buy at Essential Depot)
• 1 l (ca. 4 cups) water
• Kosher salt or Pretzel salt for sprinkling

Preparation:

Dough:

1. In a bowl, mix the lukewarm water, yeast, and sugar/honey, and let it rest for ~5mins until the mixture  looks foamy on top. Melt the butter.
2. In a large bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer if you own one), mix the flour and the salt, add the yest mix and the melted butter (make sure it has cooled down a little so it doesn't kill off the yeast bacteria).
3. Knead the dough and, if not using a machine, beat it with a wooden spoon against the side of the bowl until it is smooth “like a baby's bottom”. (This will take at least 5mins – preferably 10 by hand, about 5 with a mixer).
4. Cover the dough with Ceran wrap and let it rest in a warm spot (no warmer the 120F, ideally above 80F) for about 45mins-1h until it has doubled in size.

Forming the Pretzels

1. Divide the dough into eight even portions
2. Roll each of the eight portions into a string, about 16 inch in length and about twice as thick in the middle as at the ends
3. Hold the string on both ends, twist it twice and affix the ends to either side of the center of the string to form a pretzel shape. If needed use a little water to make the ends stick.

Working with the Lye

Note: Be careful when using lye. Especially the pure lye is highly corrosive. Only use it in plastic containers and with plastic or wooden tools.
You should always wear rubber gloves, consider wearing protective goggles and avoid breathing in lye dust. Once the lye is diluted in the water, the solution is much less aggressive so you don't need to be paranoid about it, but treat it with respect...
If you can't get or don't want to use lye, you can use baking soda (Sodium carbonate – NaCO3) dissolved in hot water instead, but the result will be less exciting pretzels which lack the crisp crust and the characteristic brown color of original pretzels.

1. In a plastic bowl, mix the lye and the water (you can vary the amounts as long as you keep the ratio – 100 water to 4 lye – constant – e.g. 500ml water 20g lye; 2l water, 80g lye etc.
2. Using rubber gloves and a plastic spatula, carefully put the pretzels in the lye solution, one or two at a time, let them sit for about 1min, remove, let excess lye solution drip, and place them on a baking tray, readjusting the shape as needed. The pretzels will rise a good bit still, so leave some space between them.
3. Sprinkle the pretzels with kosher salt (this is customary and tastes good, but the pretzels will bake just as well without, so if you mind the extra salt feel free to leave it away) and let them rise again for about 10-15mins at a moderate temperature. 
4. Preheat the oven to 425F
5. Bake the pretzels in the oven for about 12 mins until they have a rich brown color. 
6. Let the pretzels cool for about 30mins before eating. Germans will typically eat pretzels with butter, cheese, or sausage, not with mustard.