Pizza Dough Pretzels

My son requested soft pretzels for his birthday and although I had never done this before, I was up for the challenge! I found a recipe that fit the gluten free and vegan option and it worked beautifully! It is made from Bob's Red Mill Pizza dough mix so luckily, I usually have a bag of that on hand! While it isn't a PERFECT ingredient mix, using cane sugar and yeast, it IS gluten & soy free and vegan so that is what is important right?? I will be working on creating a pretzel recipe that is cleaner for our future pretzel cravings but for NOW, I wanted to share this because it really is THAT good!

Ingredients:

Pretzels:

• 1 bag Bob Red Mill's gluten free pizza mix + the ingredients to make it : 2 flax eggs (2 Tbsp flax meal + 6 Tbsp warm water), 1 tsp sea salt, 2 Tbsp coconut or olive oil and 1½ cups water

For boiling:

• 5 cups water
• 1/4 cup baking soda

For topping/baking:

• Himalayan or Real salt
• Other toppings : red pepper flakes, garlic flakes, onion flakes, cracked black pepper, sesame seeds or make it sweet with coconut sugar & cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the pizza dough mix according to the instructions.
2. Brush the inside of a large glass bowl with a little bit of coconut oil. Form the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Cover and allow the dough to rise for about 40 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
3. Uncover the dough and punch it down a couple times.
4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
5. Prepare a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper on it. Set aside.
6. Separate the dough into 8 equal balls and split each ball into 2 smaller balls. The dough is really touchy and easily falls apart so doing it in 2 pieces is a lot easier to handle. You can try to do it one long rope instead of 2 but I had a hard time doing that.
7. On an oiled work space, roll 2 of the smaller pieces into 6-8 inch pieces. Join the 2 pieces into one long rope. Use more oil on your hands if you need to.
8. Gently lift the two ends of the the dough and make a U shape, then cross to make the pretzel shape. Secure well.
9. Repeat with all of the pretzels and set aside.
10. In a large pot, add the baking soda and the water together. Bring it to a low simmer.
11. Using a large slotted spatula, move the pretzels ONE at a time into the water. Let them simmer in the water for about 30 seconds each.
12. Carefully take the pretzel out of the water with the slotted spatula and set the them onto the prepared baking sheet.
13. While still wet, sprinkle with real salt and any other toppings you desire.
14. Bake pretzels in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes until nicely golden and cooked through. Don't over bake!
15. We ate ours with Tessemae's ketchup, spicy mustard and vegan french onion dip!

** This is adapted from Debra at Worth Cooking.