Tied in Knots

Since I had that extra pack of yeast hanging around I decided to undertake the challenge of pretzels. I decided on hard pretzels even though I love soft pretzels. The last thing I need in my house is 10 soft, warm pretzels that need to be eaten within 30 minutes. Competiton eating is not my thing. I figured I could get longevity out of hard pretzels since we eat a lot of pretzels in our house. I once again turned to my trusty, old friend Alton Brown. I was even more optimistic when I read that the white flour could be substituted with whole wheat. I read through the entire recipe before I decided I could handle it. Pretzels are suprisingly much easier than both challah and pizza dough. I used course sea salt and sesame seeds to garnish. I visited both Whole Foods and Earthfare in search of pretzel salt and came up empty.

Here's the recipe and pictures.