Buttered Soft Pretzel

Combine all the dough ingredients into a stand mixer bowl and with a hook attachment, mix on a low speed until the dough is tight and smooth, roughly 10 minutes. Place the dough into a greased mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel and place into the .

Select the Dough proving function and set the temperature to 35°C for 30 minutes.

Make the Bi-Carb bath by combining the boiling water and bicarbonate of soda together in a small bowl and set aside for later, please note the bicarbonate may not fully dissolve.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into eight equal pieces.

Allow the pieces to rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Pour the bi-carb bath into a 22cm square pan or equivalent.

Roll each piece of dough into a long, thin rope roughly 80cm long, and twist each rope into a pretzel shape. Working with half of the pretzels at a time, place them in the pan with the bi-carb water, spooning the water over the top of each pretzel, then leave them in the water for at least 2 minutes before placing them on 2 oven trays lined with baking paper. This bi-carb bath will give the pretzels a lovely golden-brown colour when baking in the oven.

Sprinkle pretzels lightly with sea salt flakes. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven on Bread Baking function to220°C and turn on the Steam Jet function.

Before placing the pretzels in the oven on shelf level 1 and 3, activate the Steam Jet function by pressing the steam symbol and then bake the pretzels for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush them thoroughly with the melted butter.

Repeat this process until all of the butter has been completely used. Serve while still warm.