Cinnamon Raisin Pretzels

Recipe by Amy Beh

Ingredients
150ml lukewarm milk
1 1/2 tsp instant dried yeast
1/4 tsp sugar
A little plain flour
100g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp salt
325g high protein flour
50g raisins

Glaze (beat together):
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt
1 tsp milk

Sugar syrup:
275g sugar
1 1/2 cups water

Cinnamon sugar (mix well):
125g fine castor sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon powder

Method

Pour half the lukewarm milk in a small bowl and stir in instant dried yeast and sprinkle with sugar and flour. Leave aside for 10 minutes to froth. Combine melted butter, egg and salt in a small bowl.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in yeast mixture, combined butter egg mixture, raisins and remaining milk.

Mix to form a soft dough then turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until texture is springy and smooth. (Wweight of the dough should be 600g.)
Put dough into a lightly floured bowl and cover with a clean, damp tea-towel and leave aside for 1 hour or until it grows double in size.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knock out the air, then knead for two minutes.

Cut out a piece of dough for shaping, keeping the rest covered to prevent it from drying out.

To shape the pretzel, roll the dough under your palms into a sausage shape then keep rolling into a long strip of about 65cm long. Bring the ends round; give a twist in the centre and cross over and then take them up to the top of the circle. Give a spacing of about 4cm apart, then press it in position.

Place on a piece of clean tea towel. Shape the rest of the dough into pretzels similarly. Hold the pretzels with both hands and dip right into a basin of water. (It is done to moisten the pretzels.) Take out immediately and place on a tea towel.

Place the damp pretzels on greased trays. Brush with egg glaze and bake in a preheated oven at 230°C for four to five minutes or until golden in colour.

Finish up baking the rest of the pretzels. Turn pretzels out onto a wire rack immediately after baking and dip into sugar syrup, then coat with cinnamon sugar. Pretzels are ready for serving.
To make sugar syrup: Bring ingredients to a boil until sugar is dissolved, then leave aside to cool completely before using.