Fat Pretzels with Steak Seasoning

I had a spa day today. Not a bread-baking, toe-nail-painting at-home-spa day, but a real spa day... at a real spa... with scented candles and "rain forest music".  I had cups of green tea and people tending to my every need. I was anointed with expensive lotions and potions. And while all that was going on, I did what all ladies do at the spa, I read the gossip mags. I took a very good book with me, but it stayed in my basket while I read about what a mess Kloe Kardashians life is and compared photos of Meg Ryan before and after her startling face job. As I flipped through the pages of starlets and stars, I happened upon an interview with an Australian female celeb. She was asked what her beauty tips were. She was quoted as saying that she always adds a few drops of apple juice or a pinch of sugar to the bottles of water she sips on all day, because she was once told by a flight attendant that it helps to absorb the water (like I said, these are her words, not mine). She said that she has learned to accept her "wobbly bits" (puh lease!!), and that she does yoga twice a week. She said yoga and I immediately thought pretzels. Does anyone else have this problem?



Fat Pretzels with Steak Seasoning
adapted from Food Network
Makes 8

1 tablespoon caster sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon fine salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
Your favourite steak seasoning for sprinkling

1 heaped tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda for the boiling water/pretzel spa.

Stir the sugar, yeast and 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water in a bowl and set it aside for 5 minutes, until they are foamy.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, place the flour and slat and give them a quick stir just to combined. Add the yeast mixture and mix on low speed for about 8 minutes. Add more flour or water of the dough seems too wet or dry. It should be a little sticky and moist.

Pop the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in warm place for about 45 minutes for it to double in size.

Turn the dough out to a work surface and cut it into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion out into a long log shape and twist it into a pretzel. Put them on a oiled baking tray as you complete each one.

Let the pretzels rest again for 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 210 degrees C.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Once boiling, add 1 heaped tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Boil the pretzels in batches of 2 or 3 for about 3 minutes, turning the pretzels once. Transfer the boiled pretzels to a wire rack to cool slightly. Continue until all the pretzels have been boiled.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and oil the paper. Put the pretzel onto the tray and brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with steak seasoning. Bake for about 35 minutes, until deep bronze. Cool slightly before serving.