Soft, chewy and great with a beer, homemade pretzels are the best way to kick off an Oktoberfest-at-home celebration

Makes 10

Ingredients

7g yeast

1 tbsp sugar

14g butter, melted

1 tsp salt

500g flour (approx)

120g baking soda

Coarse sea salt, for topping

To make

1 Whisk the yeast and sugar into 360ml warm water in a bowl. Cover and rest for 1 min.

2 Whisk in the melted butter and salt, then add 375g of the flour. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Add 95g more flour (if necessary) until the dough is tacky and pulls away from the side of the bowl. If still sticky, add up to 30g more flour, 1 tbsp at a time.

3 Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for around 5 mins. If the dough gets too sticky, sprinkle
1 tsp of flour on the work surface to make a soft, slightly tacky, dough. Your dough will be ready to rise when it slowly bounces back when you poke it.

4 Shape the kneaded dough into a ball and return to the bowl, then cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to rise for around 30 mins.

5 Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

6 Use a sharp knife and divide the dough into 10 sections, roughly 80g each.

7 Roll each section into a 50cm-long rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together. Bring the twisted ends back down the centre of the circle towards yourself and press them down to form a pretzel shape.

8 Bring the baking soda and 2 ltr of water to the boil in a large pot. Drop one pretzel at a time into the boiling water for 20-30 secs. (Any longer and the pretzel will have a metallic taste.) Using a slotted spatula, lift the pretzel out of the water, allowing excess water to drip off, and place on the baking paper. Repeat this with the remaining pretzels.

9 Sprinkle the top of the pretzels with the sea salt. Bake for 12-15 mins, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

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