First, gather all your ingredients and prepare them in the right amounts. That makes it so much easier and more fun and you're less likely to forget anything.
Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl, mix, add water and knead for about 10 minutes by hand or with a machine at medium speed.
Take the vegan butter out of the fridge.
Apply a little oil to a bowl and your hands, place the dough in the bowl to let it rise for about 1 hour. I usually cover it with a damp towel and put it in the warm, switched-off oven. The temperature should be around 30°C/ 85°F. Temperatures over 40° kill the yeast.
After an hour, the dough should have doubled.
Punch it down to release the air.
Knead again for a moment, roll it into a long baguette and cut in about 12 pieces.
Roll each piece into a circle and apply vegan butter, and pile them up. Don’t apply butter to the last one.
Roll the dough out carefully by only setting the rolling pin down. If you want them to turn out high and fluffy, only roll it out a little bit. If you want them flat and crispy, roll it out into a bigger circle.
Cut it in six or eight pieces and put them on parchment paper on a baking tray.
Cover them and let them rest for 20 minutes.
If you don’t want to bake them right away, you can put them in the fridge after that, well covered and leave them there over night. Or you can even freeze them.
In the meantime preheat the oven to 210° C/410°F.
We need 2 tablespoons boiling water and 2 teaspoons baking soda. Stir mixture very carefully and apply to the pretzel corners.
Now apply some more butter.
Then sprinkle with salt and sesame and bake golden brown for about 15-20 minutes and serve warm.