These softly flavoured pretzels are just the thing to serve with a beer. We also love to put a big plate of them, still warm from the oven one the table when doing a simple soup supper or similar.
Allow 30 minutes resting time.
Combine the warm milk, honey and yeast in a small bowl, whisk and set aside until the yeast creates bubbles on the mixture’s surface.
Place the flour, salt and mustard powder in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter and yeast mixture. Bring together into a dough, tip onto your work surface and knead until you have a soft, pliable dough (about 5 minutes). You can also do this in an electric mixer with a dough hook.
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave for 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 200C and grease and line two baking trays.
Cut dough into eight pieces. Roll out one piece into a thin sausage, about 20 cm. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. Now come back and roll each sausage a little more, you want to get to around 30cm in length, rolling them first then coming back to finish off gives the gluten in the flour a chance to relax a little and become easier to stretch out.
To shape the pretzels; make a u-shape with one sausage of dough, twist the edges over once then once again and fold the twisted end over the bottom of the u-shape, pressing the ends into the dough edges. At this point you could cover the shaped pretzels and freeze for up to 3 months.
Arrange on the lined trays, brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.