Alton Brown's Soft Pretzels with Vegan Tweaks

I decided to make Alton Brown's pretzel recipe. I've been a Good Eats fan for years and there are many things he's cooked that I've always wanted to try myself. Pretzels were pretty high on that lengthy list. Since I had all the ingredients, it seemed the perfect time to finally give it a try. I've made yeast breads before, but never pretzels.

I wanted to keep it vegan though, because it didn't seem like it would be difficult to do or that it would cause a major shift in flavor or texture. So I used vegetable shortening instead of butter. I also switched out the egg wash with flavored olive oil.

Another minor change was the kind of salt. I did not have pretzel salt, but I did have a pink himalayan salt grinder. I used regular table salt in the dough. But in the seasoned olive oil I used the fancy salt. I also finished each pretzel with a little more of the fancy salt, since it was a fine grind.

It was easy and fun to do. The results were amazing! Incredible taste and texture.

Thanks yeast and thanks Alton.