Recipe: Butter Pretzels

Crystal: Here is a recipe for Butter Pretzels.
Maybe you could add brown sugar to the topping
and come close to your toffee pretzels...BUTTER PRETZELS

1/2 lb. butter room temp.
1 lb. chilled butter OR 4 more sticks chilled butter
1 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
2 cups of warm milk
1/4 tsp. ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground Cardamon
1/2 tsp. salt
7 cup of flour
2 packs dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar

In cup, mix yeast, 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tsp. sugar and let yeast develop.
Cream 1/2 lb. butter or 2 sticks butter, sugar, eggs in mixing bowl.
Add warm milk and yeast mixture and beat well.
Add 6 cups of flour along with the salt, nutmeg and Cardamon till you have a soft
dough.
If it is too sticky, add the last cup of flour.
Knead for 5 minutes.
Cover and put in a warm place till double in size.
Divide dough into 4 sections. One for each Pretzel.
Take one section of dough and divide it into 3 equal strips.
On floured surface stretch each strip of dough lengthwise to about 15 inches. Use
fingers to do so.
DO NOT USE ROLLING PIN.
Take one stick or 1/4 lb. chilled butter and cut stick into 8 or 10 long narrow
slivers of cold butter.
Lay these slivers of butter on top of each of the three dough strips, about 3 slivers
to a strip. Use up all the butter in the stick.
Using fingers, enclose the slivers of butter by wraping the dough over the slivers.
The object is to seal the butter in the strips.
Now BRAID the 3 strips with the butter enclosed. Do it gently and keep it loose.
Put the braided Pretzel into a circle in an ungreased pan.
Sprinkle over the top of Pretzel at least 1/4 of a cup of coarse chopped Pecans.
Bake at 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until light brown. Do not let the
pecans burn. While Pretzel is still warm, drizzle over Almond sugar icing.
Continue with the other 3 sections of dough to make 3 more Pretzels.

Topping for Butter Pretzel

1 1/2 cups of coarse chopped Pecans, prefered
2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. of pure Almond Extract
2 tsp. of water

Mix 2 cups of powdered sugar with 1/2 tsp. of Almond extract and 2 tsp. of water.
Mix well, should not have any lumps. If this icing is too thick to drizzle over the
Pretzels, thin with a little more water.

Makes 4 Pretzels.