Cheesy Homemade Pretzels

Combine yeast, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl.

In the mixer bowl of your brand-spankin’-new 6-quart, candy-apple red KitchenAid mixer that your husband gave you for Valentines Day. Forget diamonds, they can’t knead bread, now can they? KitchenAid spells R-O-M-A-N-C-E in my house. Who got lucky that night, huh? Who? Well, I guess we both did. Sorry – TMI. Where was I? Oh, right…

Add to the dry ingredients the almost hot water and the oil and give it a stir.

Combine the two flours in a mixing bowl and dump 6 cups of the flour mix into the mixer bowl. Reserve the extra 1 cup.

Add 1 cup of the shredded cheese that has been patiently waiting its turn. Reserve the extra 1 cup.

Attach the dough hook to your brand-spankin’-new, candy apple – you know what I’m talkin’ about – and set the speed on “2”.

Mix it up. Incorporate the rest of the flour mix, a 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough “cleans the side of the bowl” but is still slightly sticky at the bottom. You may not need all the flour.

With your new mixer still set on “2”, knead the dough for 4 minutes. Make yourself a cup of coffee while the mixer does all the kneading for you. Life is so good!

Turn dough out onto a floured board or counter top and cut into 20 pieces. Let the pieces rest 5 – 10 minutes, covered.

Roll each piece into a 15 inch rope and shape into a pretzel shape.

Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the tops of the pretzels with the beaten egg.

Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese on top.

Bake 13 – 15 minutes at 425 degrees.

VARIATIONS: Sprinkle coarse salt, sesame seeds or cinnamon sugar on top. You can also add jalapenos or chilies to the dough for a pretzel with some kick.

Eat warm, while you admire your new mixer.

If you don’t have a mixer with a dough hook and you’d like to cheerfully and gleefully strangle me with your bare hands, you can still do it by hand. You’ll need to mix everything up by hand and knead for 5 – 7 minutes until smooth.