Cara’s Cuisine: Super Bowl Soft Pretzels

With Super Bowl LII coming up on Feb. 4, it seems to be one of the most popular topics around campus. Even people who normally avoid sports like the plague are talking about the big game or, more importantly, the fantastic commercials and tasty Super Bowl snacks.

One of the most traditional game day snacks are soft pretzels. It’s nearly impossible to go to any sort of sports stadium and not see them being sold by multiple vendors throughout the facility, and why wouldn’t they sell these delicious treats? Pretzels are amazing plain and fresh out of the oven, dipped into some cheese sauce or coated in chocolate. For our 21-year-old Stags, soft pretzels are also the perfect accompaniment for game day drinks — there’s a reason German Pretzels are served at most bars. They’re also easy to make, one of the more healthy Super Bowl snacks served and even though it’s quite a few steps, this recipe is nearly impossible to mess up.

Good luck to whoever’s playing and surprise your friends (and your parents for actually using that apartment kitchen) by making some of these delectable soft pretzels Sunday night!

Preheat Oven: 450 degrees

Servings: 12

1 ½ cups of water, warm

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of light brown sugar

1 packet of active dry yeast

4 ½ cups of flour

2 tablespoons of oil

2/3 cup of baking soda

10 cups of water

2 eggs

1.     Combine water, salt and brown sugar into a bowl. Then add yeast and let sit until the yeast starts to foam, about five minutes
2.     Mix in flour and oil, combine until a dough forms, lay on a lightly floured surface, and knead for three minutes. Shape into a ball and cover with a towel for 10 minutes.
3.     While the dough rests, fill a pot with 10 cups of water and the baking soda and bring to a boil.
4.     For traditional shape: with a sharp knife, or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 12 1/3 cup sections. Roll each out (like a snake play dough) into 21-inch ropes. Form each rope into the pretzel shape.
5.     Use a slotted spatula and drop one or two pretzels at a time into the pot. Boil for 20-30 seconds, then lift out and let as much water drip off as possible. BEWARE: any more and the pretzel will taste almost metallic. Not yummy.
6.     Put the pretzels on a parchment paper covered baking sheet, beat the eggs and use a brush to give each pretzel an egg wash. OPTIONAL: sprinkle with coarse salt.

7.     Put in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.