Recipe Instructions:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1 cup self rising flour or mix 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 cup baking soda
1 egg whisked (for egg wash finish)
coarse sea salt for topping
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, add yogurt and flour. When measuring out the yogurt, make sure that you strain out any excess liquid. Any extra liquid sitting in your yogurt will cause the dough to be too wet.
Using a large spoon or spatula, mix together flour and yogurt until it begins to form a crumbly dough. Use your hands to push the dough together into one ball. The dough will be very sticky.
Add your dough to a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Knead the dough on medium speed until it becomes one ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Your dough ball should feel tacky and no longer too sticky. This should only take a few minutes and you should be watching your mixer carefully and remove the dough as soon as it is tacky. If you over-knead it, the dough will become sticky again. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough by hand. You will need to cover your kneading surface with flour and knead the dough by hand until it is tacky and no longer sticky.
Divide dough into four equal balls. Roll out ball on a lightly floured surface until it becomes a 14-inch long rope. Try to make the rope as even and smooth as possible. You can re-roll a few times until it is smooth and even. Form a pretzel shape with the rope. Repeat with remaining dough balls.
Add 4 cups of water and baking soda to a medium pot. Your water level should be high enough to completely submerge one pretzel. If it's not, you may need a smaller pot. Bring water baking soda to a simmer. Then turn off heat but leave the pot on the stove so the water stays hot. Gently submerge one soft pretzel in water for about 30 seconds. The pretzel should puff up slightly but should not lose its form. Do not boil the pretzels in the baking soda because this causes the dough to puff unevenly and lose its form. Remove pretzel and place onto prepared sheet pan. Repeat with remaining pretzels.
Brush the entire surface area of the pretzels generously with egg wash. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over pretzels.
Bake pretzels for about 25 minutes or until pretzels are cooked and the crust is dark brown. Let pretzels cool a few minutes before eating.
