• Mill the flour.
• Make the Yudane by mixing 25 grams of milled flour with 50 grams of boiling water. Mix it quickly into a paste.
• Add water to your mixing bowl with Yudane and sugar. Give it a swirl, then add salt and yeast.
  
• Add remaining flour to the bowl and begin mixing with a danish dough whisk (or by hand if you like). Add in butter, and continue mixing for several minutes by hand.
  
• Rest the dough for 30 minutes and knead for a few more minutes until the dough is more pliable and workable.
  
• Let the dough rise until doubled.
  
• Punch down the dough (we did it the fun way this time).
  
• Scale (divide) the dough into 4 parts, and take one section out at a time for shaping. Keep the remaining dough covered with a damp towel.
  
• Divide the section into 4, and shape one section at a time.
• Preheat oven to 420 F.

Simple Shaping

• Roll the dough flat, and cut into strips. Roll each strip into a 1/2 cm log.
• Place on parchment lined tray space apart, and cut to size with a rolling cutter or bench scraper.
• Mix baking soda with boiling water and stir to fully dissolve it.
• Spray or brush baking soda wash on the pretzels, and top with coarse sea salt or kosher pretzel salt.
• Bake 8-10 minutes until nicely browned.
  
• Turn off oven and let pretzels continue to harden while the oven cools down, or transfer to a dehydrator tray set to 125 F until fully crispy.