Pretzels

Makes 6 pretzels, takes about 2½ hours

Dough

• 450 g Bread Flour
• 270 g Warm Water
• 7 g Dry Yeast
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• ½ Tbsp Brown Sugar
• ½ Tbsp Salt

Alkaline Solution

• 1 qt Water
• 1 Tbsp Lye (or 2 Tbsp baked baking soda)

1. In a medium bowl, combine all dough ingredients and stir until a shaggy dough is formed.
2. Turn dough onto work surface, and knead until smooth and supple (8–10 minutes). Bulk fermentation: let rest until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
3. Punch down dough and cut into 6 even pieces, forming however you'd like. Let rest 30 minutes.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
5. Heat oven to 425°F and make alkaline solution (adding lye/soda to water slowly).
6. Dip each pretzel into the solution for 30–60 seconds, turning it over occasionally, and place back on baking sheet.
7. Sprinkle with flaky salt, and bake about 15 minutes.