Auntie Anne's Pretzels- Copycat Recipe

I made homemade pretzels for the first time last weekend. They turned out super delicious. I found the recipe on Pinterest via Yammie's Noshery. Don't let the recipe intimidate you. I have never made bread before in my entire life and I did this. If you know me, I am not known for cooking or baking. This is something new that I am trying. So trust me, if I can do it, you can do it. I used my KitchenAid Classic Series White Stand Mixer - K45SSWH (Google Affiliate Ad) mixer for this which made the job much easier.
Just like usual, I wasn't thinking of making a blog entry out of this... so I only have a picture of the finished product.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 1/2 tbsp. active dry yeast (or 2 packets)
6 tbsp. brown sugar
4 tbsp. butter, melted
4 1/2 cups flour (I used all purpose)
2 tsp. fine salt

1/4 cup baking soda
2 cups warm water
Coarse Salt (pretzel topping)
6 tbsp. butter melted (pretzel topping)

Directions:

1. Warm the milk in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes. It should be warm enough for you to comfortably leave your finger in it. Make sure it is not too hot because it will kill the yeast. Stir the yeast into the warm milk and let sit for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the butter and brown sugar and mix.

3. I then changed from the whisk attachment to the dough hook attachment. Add the flour about 1 cup at a time. Then add the fine salt.

4. Kneed for 10 minutes in your mixer or by hand.

5. Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let it sit and rise for about an hour in a warm room. The dough should double in size.

6. Punch down the dough and divide it into 12 balls. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

7. Roll out each ball into a long dough strand by hand. The thinner the strand the thinner the pretzels will be. You will see in my picture that I didn't roll them out thin enough because they came out kind of thick.

8. Twist the pretzels into a pretzel shape and submerge it into the warm water/baking soda mixture.

9. Place the pretzel onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper. Sprinkle the pretzel with the coarse salt.

10. Bake for 7-11 minutes, until brown. Brush each pretzel with melted butter and top again with coarse salt.

11. Enjoy!