Ever since we visited Pennsylvania Dutch country last October, I have been jonesin’ for a recipe for soft Amish pretzels. While we were there, I watched an Amish girl rolling dough and whipping out those knotted delicacies like a pretzel making machine. She would flick her wrists and the dough just seemed to knot up under her hands magically. I SOoooooo wanted to video or photograph her technique, but of course I couldn’t take her picture since she was Amish and I refused to be the person who condemned her soul for all eternity just for the sake of a good blog entry. But I could take a picture of this hilarious sign outside of one of the pretzel shops in Intercourse.
When I read the name of this shop all I could think was Erhmahgerd! Prertzerls!
I could also take pictures of the pretzels that I ate standing outside of Kitchen Kettle Village early one morning as the sun was coming up. I know Jesus said that a man cannot live by bread alone, but one bite of these pretzels might have changed His mind. I’d be willing to give it a shot.
And… since this is such a teaser post here is an Amish buggy headed home from the grocery store just for good measure. One of these days I will get around to blogging about our whole trip, but in the meantime… AMISH BUGGY! I love the Amish so much.
Ok, back to the pretzels.
I needed an easy soft pretzel recipe, and after a little Googling I think I have found one that is pretty close to the melt-in-your mouth deliciousness of the ones that I found at the Bird-In-Hand Farmer’s Market. Here are the pretzels that I made today after a little bit of recipe tweaking. They are oh-so-delicious.
Amish Pretzel Recipe
- 1½ cups warm water
- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (try brown sugar for a chewier pretzel)
- 2 cups bread flour, sifted
- 2 cups self rising flour, sifted
- Dipping solution:
- 3 cups hot water
- ½ cup baking soda
- Topping:
- Sea salt in a grinder
- 1 stick salted butter
- In a mixing bowl sprinkle yeast over warm water and stir until dissolved. Let yeast sit for two minutes.
- Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Sift flours into mixture.
- Mix with the dough hook attachment just until a dough ball forms. Don’t over-knead the dough or it will be tough. Just as soon as it comes together and forms a smooth ball, stop the mixer and cover the bowl with a clean cloth.
- Let dough rise at least 30 minutes until it doubles in size.
- Once dough has risen, cut the dough into strips and roll out pieces about 12 to 18 inches long.
- Twist the pretzels (see video link on blog) and dip in the baking soda/water solution, then sprinkle with sea salt.
- Bake at 500 degrees for 4-6 minutes until golden brown on top.
- Dip face of pretzels in butter and sprinkle with more salt if desired.
I knew that I would be able to find somebody, somewhere who had filmed how to knot a pretzel like the Amish girl did, and of course I was right. Go check out this video on how to twist a pretzel from a dude at Auntie Anne’s pretzels. It showed me exactly how to do it with the same lasso technique that the Amish girl was using, with the added bonus of not making any Amish violate that commandment about having graven images of themselves. And even if you screw it up the first few times like I did, don’t worry. They’ll still eat.
You can even get your kids in on the action and let them make snail pretzel bites like Garrett made here:
Now get Immergut, Prertzerl!
My mouth is literally watering looking at these pretzels! Now all I need is a good beer cheese recipe and I am set!
Get in my tummy…now!!!! Love these and can’t wait to try this recipe! Or, have Katie make them I should say
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I’m sooo making these!!!!!!
Thank you for the recipe!!!
I could make these and have my fill today before anyone ever knew. The only question, do I want to dip them in cheese or just savor the buttery goodness?
Bliss
I like the way you think, friend.
Ha, your Erhmahgerd! Prertzerls! cracked me up! But those pretzels? Look SERIOUSLY amazing. Pinning!
Oh no, I make a batch of these and I’ll eat every single last one of them!
Garsh dang it- You do know I just did my “shred” workout and bread is my Weakness– and now I want- I want the salt I want the bread. Holy Smokes I am coming over girl!
Oh my gosh what I wouldn’t give to have one of these right now…they look ah-mazing!
Get in MY gut! I LOVE soft pretzels…especially with cinnamon…girl you may have unlocked the secret that could change my life! Thank you, sista!
Oh, yum! All you need is a little mustard to go with it!
Oh my gosh those look SO GOOOOD! Saving this recipe and making those pretzels SOON. Also, that sign out front is awesome hahaha!
They look SO yummy, Beth! I’m such a sucker for a soft pretzel. I love them! I’m totally going to try to your recipe. YUMM
Beth,
You are such a rock star! I think I’m going to have to try to make these…..(and that is a gigantic compliment coming from someone who doesn’t cook)! They look absolutely delicious!!!!!! Totaly facebooking them later today!
Have an awesome day!
karianne
Erhmahgerd! Beth. Those look delightful. Better than delightful. They look super yummy. I want them now. The recipe looks very doable, even for me the person whose talk for baking is bigger than her bite.
I cannot wait to try these Beth! Soft warm pretzels are my favorite. I’m going to be craving these until I get one now….
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Well, I accidentally found your blog through Pinterest, because that’s what I’ve been doing while the baby is napping — wasting time that should have been dedicated to folding laundry by looking at laundry rooms that other people have pinned and thinking to myself, “You know, I might actually ENJOY doing the laundry, if our laundry room was more beautiful.” And then I found your redecorated laundry room, which lead me to find your Amish pretzel recipe, which then led me to take your home tour, and wow! What a fun blog! I think we’d get along famously as neighbors. You could come over with a batch of homemade soft pretzels… you could introduce yourself… you could say, “I’m that girl with the home decorating blog that you decided to start stalking”… and then I could say, “Oh! Won’t you please come in? Here is a bucket of paint, and here is some hard-earned, backed-with-some-gold, American dollars; take them and buy whatever it is that I need to hang on my enormous BLANK walls!” And then we would become friends. I love your blog!