Pretzel Rolls: Secret Recipe Club

As soon as I had sent Zach a link to my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment for this month, Patricia's ButterYum, I almost immediately got back a response that consisted solely of a link to the the recipe for these Pretzel Rolls.  And I can't say it was a bad choice!  These pretzel rolls immediately reminded me of the kind we get at our favorite grocery store, Wegmans.  They baked up deep golden brown and delicious.  They are great just out of the oven and taste just like a pretzel.  The remaining rolls would be great heated briefly in the oven, or a toaster oven, for just a few minutes until they get nice and crusty again on the outside and steamy and hot on the inside. 

Pretzel Rolls
from ButterYum

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cup bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (one packet)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

8 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white, beaten
coarse salt

Directions:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine bread flour, yeast, kosher salt, sugar and water.  Use dough hook on low speed, mixing until dough ball forms.  Then move speed to medium-low and knead for one minute.  Coat a large bowl with oil and transfer dough to prepared bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and towel and let rise until doubled in size, about one hour.
• Punch dough down and transfer on to floured work surface.  Cut into 16 equal pieces.  Work pieces into a circle with one smooth, tight, uniform 'skin' of dough.  Place on to parchment or silpat lined baking sheets, leaving space between rolls (I did two sets of 8 rolls on two half-sheet pans).  Let rise until doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
• During the last ten minutes of the second rise, First preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Then bring the 8 cups water, baking soad and sugar to a boil in a large pot.  When the shaped rolls have doubled in size, boil them for 30 seconds per side.  We fit 3-4 of the small sized rolls in the large pot at once.  
• Remove from water, drain and place back on sheet pans. Brush with the beaten egg white and top with coarse salt.  Once salted you can use kitchen scissors to cut an X shape in the top of each roll.  This will help steam escape and keeps the round shape. 
• Bake the rolls at 375 for 25 minutes, until a deep golden brown.  Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before eating. 

Check out what everyone else made for Group B of the Secret Recipe Club!!