Vegan Soft + Hard Pretzels

There is something so satisfying about making homemade dough for something. That includes pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, and soft pretzels! Let me tell you, these are freaking amazing and such a crowd pleaser! You can make them into soft or hard pretzels with just a few extra minutes in the oven! It is amazing and I totally recommend trying both ways! The recipe its self is very easy and you probably already have all the ingredients you need! 

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 tbs evaporated cane sugar (or any sweetener of choice)
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp salt
• large pot of water (for boiling)
• 2 tbs baking soda (also for boiling, not for dough)
• Sprinkling toppings (cinnamon sugar, sea salt, etc)

Ingredients:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, combine the warm water, sugar, and yeast until dissolved
2. Let sit for 10-15 minutes or until foamy
3. Add in the oil, flour, salt, and water
4. Using the dough hook on stand mixer, kneed for 8-10 minutes on a low speed. If you re kneading by hand (kudos to you), then kneed for at least 10 minutes. The dough should be very smooth and not very sticky at all. You can tell it is finished when you poke it and it bounces back
5. Once it has been kneaded, cover with a towel and set in a warm dark place (I like to use my oven) for 45 minutes to an hour, or until doubled in size
6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees 
7. Start the large pot of water on high heat to boil
8. Punch down the dough and knead it a few times until a smooth ball forms
9. Flatten out the dough on a slightly oiled surface into a 1" round
10. Cut into 8-12 pieces evenly sized
11. Feel free to get creative with the shapes you create. Watch the video below to see how I make the classic pretzel twist and small nugget pieces
12. Add the baking soda to the pot of boiling water, be careful it doesn't boil over
13. Drop in each pretzel on at a time for 30 seconds. They should sink down to the bottom of the pot and then float back up
14. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and sprinkle with salt or any other toppings
15. Once they have all been boiled, bake for 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your pretzel. Keep an eye on them so they don't get too dark
16. Once the pretzels are golden brown, remove from the oven and let cool
17. Enjoy like this or take it one step further...

Hard Pretzels

Directions:

1. To turn your soft pretzels into hard pretzels, place back in the oven whole or break them up into bite size pieces
2. Bake for another 5-10 minutes or until they are darker in color and much crunchier
3. Keep an eye them so they don't burn. I suggest taking them out halfway and moving them around to get evenly cooked
4. Once they finished baking, remove from the oven to cool
5. Enjoy like this, dipped in mustard, in a trail mix, or even as croutons!