Pizza Pretzels

I began making pizza for dinner last night and the kids ran in and asked if I was making pretzels. Well, why not? Pizza pretzels were born. We've had these at Wetzel's Pretzels, so it wasn't an original idea, but I'd never made them before.

Also, I recently discovered that my pizza dough and pretzel dough recipes are exactly the same. Embarrassingly, they are printed right above each other on the paper I've been reading them off for four years. Here's the recipe again:

1 T. yeast
1 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 T. oil
2 1/2-3 c. flour

For the pizza (and pizza pretzels), I add a couple teaspoons of minced garlic. I don't usually let my pizza dough rise, but I usually go through the double rising process with pretzels. However, since I had planned on making pizza, I didn't have time. So I skipped it and they were fine. The dough was actually amazing and I think it's because I added a squirt of the soy lecithin that's been lying around my kitchen unused for several years. It made the dough really stretchy, satiny, and it looked like the pretzel dough the bakeries use.  If you're interested in this, I found a helpful article on dough enhancers.

Once the dough was mixed, I made the usual pretzel shapes, skipping both rising steps.

Boil them in baking soda water for 10 seconds on each side. Sprinkle plenty of mozzarella cheese and add some pepperoni slices.

Bake the pizza pretzels at 425 for 10-12 minutes.