German-style soft pretzels - no lye

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**RECIPE, MAKES FOUR LARGE PRETZELS**
1 cup (237mL) water
bread flour (about three cups, 360g, but it really depends so just go by feel)
1 tablespoon melted butter (or oil)
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt (for the dough)
coarse salt for topping
baking soda to make washing soda (I use whole box and save the rest for next time)
To convert baking soda (sodium hydrogencarbonate) to washing soda (sodium carbonate), pour the baking soda in a pot and turn the heat on high. Stir the pan frequently to make sure all the powder heats evenly. Eventually you'll start to see little plumes of gas escaping, especially when you stir the powder. (It'll look most dramatic if you give the pan a vigorous shake). This is water and carbon dioxide leaving the pan. Keep cooking until you no longer see any signs of gas when you agitate the powder - it takes me about 15 minutes. If everything went well, the powder should weight a little less than 2/3rds of what it weighed originally. Let cool and keep dry in a sealed nonreactive container - plastic is good. It's mildly caustic, so try not to let it sit on your skin for too long, try not to get it in your eyes or breath a lot of it in, etc.
To make the dough, combine the water, sugar, butter, yeast, salt and as much flour as you can stir in with a spoon. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes (this would be a good time to make your washing soda). After it's sat, it will be much easier to knead in some more four - enough to get a smooth dough ball that's just barely sticky. Cover and let rise until about doubled, 1-2 hours.
Take the risen dough ball out and cut it into quarters. Roll each quarter up into a little log (see video), cover, and let sit for at least 30 min before shaping. To shape, lightly flour your counter, grab a dough log and use flat hands to roll the outer arms of the dough thin while leaving fat belly of the dough intact (again, see video). Roll the rope of dough longer than you think you want it. Grab the ends and make a U shape, twist the ends and then flop them over the belly of the dough (again, see vid). Once shaped, cover and let proof for about 30 min until puffy, or don't. Some Germans prefer to cook them right away for a denser texture.
It's much easier to boil the pretzel dough if it's cold - almost frozen solid. I recommend putting the fully-proofed doughs in the freezer for 20-30 min while you pre-heat the oven (425ºF/220ºC, or a little hotter if you like darker, crispier pretzels) and bring your washing soda bath to a boil.
Get a wide, deep pan of water for the washing soda bath, and a wide, deep bowl of plain water for rinsing the pretzels after the bath. Turn heat on high and dissolve about as much of your washing soda into the water in the pan as possible, but be conservative - it's better to have a solution that's not fully saturated vs a solution with big washing soda particles floating around in it (they could stick to the pretzel and taste bitter).
The water should be clear after a couple minutes of heating and stirring. Anything between a bare simmer and a full boil is fine. (This solution is mildly caustic, but not super dangerous. If you get it on your hands, wash it off, but you're unlikely to get a chemical burn unless you bathe in it.)
When the pretzels are firm, drop them in the hot water and cook for about 15 seconds - I recommend doing this one at a time. Transfer to the bowl of plain water and rinse clean (the solution tastes bitter). Transfer to a baking sheet and top with coarse salt while it's still wet (the water will hold the salt in place). Repeat with the other pretzels, and if you want you can score the fat belly of each with a knife to let it puff up more in the oven.
Bake until very brown, about 15 minutes. To make the pretzels shinier, you can spray them or paint them with water once or twice during the bake. Easier, though less effective, is to do the same right after they finish baking but are still hot.