Baseball’s opening day was this past Thursday. Since I could not be at Comerica Park watching the Tigers sweep the Red Sox, I decided to make my favorite ball park snack: soft pretzels. Don’t be intimidated by the recipe. These pretzels are simple to make ( a little time consuming), but definitely taste like a ball park pretzel.

Homemade Soft Pretzels     
Ingredients
1 package (1/4 ounce) instant dry yeast
1-1.5 cups warm water (115 degrees)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups all purpose-flour
8 cups water
1/2 cup baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
kosher salt (same salt used on ball park pretzels) and cinnamon/sugar mixture

Directions
• In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth. Continue to add enough of the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.

•  Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (this took me about 20 minutes). Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubles in size (this took about 1 hour).

• Punch dough down; divide into 13 portions. Roll into an 18 inch rope (you will need to push down extremely hard to get the dough to stretch); twist into a pretzel shape (the easiest way is how I show below)

• In a large saucepan, bring water and baking soda to a boil. Place pretzels into the boiling water, one at a time, for 30 seconds (the pretzel should float). Place on a paper towel and pat semi dry.

• Place on parchment paper, brush with egg and sprinkle with desired topping.

• Bake at 350 for 7-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan and place on a wire rack and add brush on melted butter to add a shine if desired.