Honey Wheat Pretzels

I have been on a mission lately to purge our house of enriched white flour. I recieved a recipe from a cooking message board, www.thenest.com, for soft pretzels. I love them! But after getting to the bottom of a bag of white flour, I decided to try something new. This version has whole wheat flour and a little honey, but otherwise the recipe remains true to the original. James is usually very skeptical of my whole wheat substitutions, but he loved these!

Ingredients:

1 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp honey
2+ cups flour - half whole wheat and half all purpose
coarse kosher salt
5 Tbs baking soda
shortening or butter

Directions:

1) In large mixing bowl mix 1 tbls HOT water and 1 tsp yeast. Mix until yeast dissolves completely.
2) Stir in 2/3 cup WARM water.
3) Stir in brown sugar and honey.
4) Slowly add 2 cups flour, stirring constantly. Contuine stirring until the mixture is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.
5) Lightly flour counter. Dip your hands into extra flour. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth. (Push it down and away from you with the palms of your hands, turning the dough as you work)
6) Grease cookie sheet(s) well with butter or shortening. Sprinkle greased cookie sheet(s) with kosher salt. Preheat oven to 475.
7) Using liquid measuring cup fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water, add 1 tbls baking soda. (I use 5 cups of water and 5 Tbs baking soda. If you've never seen an empty baking soda container, you will soon!)
8) Divide the dough into 16 equal sized pieces.
9) Using the following 4 steps shape each dough ball into a pretzel shape...1)Roll the dough into a rope 14" long and as thick as your thumb. Bend the dough into a U shape.2) Cross one end of the rope over the other one. The ropes should cross about three inches from the tips.3) Twist the crossed ends, making a full turn. Fold the ends back, towards the middle of the U.4) Open the ends slightly to form a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the dough firmly.
*note: when I get halfway through a batch I usually get tired of rolling them and shaping them out and make pretzel sticks!
10) Bring water into saucepan to a gentle boil (not to many bubbles).
11) Use pancake turner to lower each pretzel into the saucepan. Count slowly to 30. Then lift the pretzel onto the greased and salted cookie sheet (shaking off excess water back into the saucepan). Repeat until all the pretzels are done.
12) Sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the pretzels and put them in preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes or until the pretzels are golden.

You can also top with cinnamon sugar instead of salt. If you do that, don't salt the baking sheet, or your pretzels will have salt on the bottom and sugar on the top.

ENJOY!!!!!

FULL Credit for the original recipe goes to Krashed24 on the nest's What's For Dinner board. She recommends you make a double batch from the get-go or you'll be sorry. I agree!