History
This isnt exactly a long time family recipe thats been passed down through the generations, but it is a recipe that I personally have made for me and my family a lot.
I bake a lot of bread in my free time, and these Pretzel Buns are generally good to have for sandwhiches and whatnot. plus, who doesnt like pretzels?
Time
- Prep: 10 minutes
- proof time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
- cook time: 20-25 minutes
- total: roughly 2 hours
Dough
- 1 3/4 cups warm water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3/4 teaspoon salt (+1 tablespoon for after)
- 4 1/2 cups Bread Flour
- 1/4 cup Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
Water Bath
- 2 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/4 cup baking soda
Baking Instructions
- First proof your yeast in warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer to check its still viable, leave in a covered bowl for five minutes then check to see if a foamy layer has formed.
- Next, add in your flour, salt, milk powder, and softened butter to your yeast/water mixture. Mix in the bowl on low with the dough hook until all incorporated into a slightly sticky dough.
- form the dough into a ball and leave in a greased bowl for around an hour until doubled in size.
- Once the dough has risen, remove it from the bowl and gently deflate it over a lightly greased surface, then divide it into roughly 8 or 9 balls using a bench scraper. Let the dough balls sit for another 20 minutes.
- Then preheat the oven to 400℉ and make your water bath, bringing a medium pot of water, baking soda, and salt to boil.
- Drop 3 balls at a time into the water bath, for a minute each but turning each ball halfway through. Remove from the water using a slotted spoon
- When the dough is still wet from the water bath, sprinkle on a reasonable amount of coarse salt, then with a sharp knife make a cross about a ¼ inch deep.
- Place the buns in the oven and let cook for 20-25 minutes until they’re a good shade of dark brown. Once done transfer the buns to a cooling rack
