Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water.  

Add the rest of the water to this mixture once the yeast has dissolved.  

Mix together 4 cups flour and the 2 tsp.salt.  

Add the dissolved yeast mixture to the flour and salt and combine to form a stiff dough.

Add more flour if needed.  

Knead this for about 10 minutes until it’s elastic. 

Form into a ball and coat with butter

Cover with a moist dish towel and place in a warm spot to rise (your oven set to its lowest setting is often a good spot). 

Let rise for 45 minutes – it will pretty much double in size. 

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. 

Bring a large pot of water (like a stock pot) to boil. While waiting for it to boil. form your pretzels (into the traditional twists or other shapes).  

I begin by pinching off a piece of the dough and then rolling into a thick snake. From there you could just cut off some pieces to make pretzel bites or twist them into the classic pretzel shape. 

Once the water has come to a boil, put the baking soda into it (it may fizz up a bit). Drop pretzels into the water and let them boil until they float to the surface (doesn’t take long so stay close by).

Put the coarse salt onto the pretzels (or if you like lots of salt, you can dip the tops of each pretzel into the salt) and place on a cooking sheet. If not using a non-stick sheet, you definitely want to butter the sheet – you can even butter it when using non-stick if you’d like that extra bit of buttery flavor.

Bake for about 12 minutes until golden brown. I love them the best when they’re warm out of the oven!