Put the flour in a bowl, mix with the salt and make a well in the middle. Mix the yeast in a bowl with the sugar and some of the lukewarm water. Pour into the well and stir something into the flour with your finger. Then add the melted butter and the rest of the water and process into a yeast dough. It should be a soft, non-sticky batter. It may be that you still need some water, for me the information is so accurate.
Then knead the dough briefly on a lightly floured work surface and return it to the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for about an hour. During this time it should have increased its volume significantly.
In the meantime, line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Then knead the dough again briefly and divide it into eight equal parts. I always weigh the pieces of dough, then the pretzels are the same size.
Put all but one piece of dough back in the bowl and cover with a damp cover. Now shape one part into a 57cm long strand on a non-floured work surface. This is best done with slightly damp hands. Always work from the center outwards. The strand should also be thicker in the middle and thinner towards the ends. Now grasp the ends and loop the strand around yourself, press it on the top right and left of the thicker piece of dough, so that you have the shape of a pretzel. Then place them on the baking sheet and cover with a damp cloth.
Then first shape four pretzels and place them evenly on the baking sheet. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for another 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220 degrees, whisk the egg with one tablespoon of water.
On the second baking sheet, brush the parchment paper with a little melted butter.
Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan, then briefly pull it off the stove and add the baking soda. Attention! it foams up a lot, put it back on the stove and let it cook again.
The best thing to do is to add two pretzels one after the other. Hold these so that you have the ends of the dough in your hands. Briefly add the pretzels to the lye and moisten the top with the lye with a slotted spoon. Remove with the slotted spoon and place on the buttered baking paper. Do the same with the other two as well. Now cut across the top of the thick part of the pretzels with a sharp knife. Spread a thin layer of the egg mixture, sprinkle with salt on top and place in the preheated oven. Bake there for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown in color.
In the meantime, repeat the same thing with the remaining four parts in the bowl. Then let the baked pretzels cool on a wire rack.
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