An inspiration from the traditional twisted soft chewy pretzel, this enriched pretzel bread loaf is so soft and fluffy. The loaf has a nice shine and a dark soft crust, which are characteristics of pretzels.
Add all ingredients for the dough except for the oil. Use the dough hook to stir the mixture a bit so the flour won't fly around when you start the mixer. Knead on the lowest speed for 2-3 minutes and then increase to speed 2 and knead for 3 minutes and then speed 4 for another 3 minutes or until it forms a dough that clears the side of the bowl, but not smooth yet
Add oil and knead on speed 2 for about 2-3 minutes and then increase speed to 4 and knead for 5 minutes or until the dough is soft, smooth, elastic, and slightly sticky to the touch. If you stretch a small portion of the dough thinly and gently, it shouldn't break. This is a windowpane stage. The dough will be slightly sticky to the touch. This is the texture we want for soft texture bread
First proofing:
Lightly oil the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel or loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until double in volume. if it's colder, it may take longer to proof the dough
Prepare the baking soda bath:
Combine boiling water with baking soda. Let it cool down to at least lukewarm so we won't kill the yeast
Shaping:
Knock out all the gas by giving it some kneading. Divide the dough to 3 equal portions. Round them up into balls. Cover and let them rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten
Brush your loaf pan with some oil all over. You can use 9 x 5 loaf pan or 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan, which will give you a very tall loaf. Work with one dough at a time. Roll the dough out into a rectangle, about 12 x 8 inches roughly, trying to deflate as much air bubbles as possible at the same time so there won’t be holes inside your bread later. Fold both sides to the center. Roll it up tightly from the short side and pinch the seam to seal
Roll the dough in baking soda bath:
Unlike making traditional twisted pretzel or buns where we boil the dough in baking soda bath, in this case we just dip the dough and coat them in the bath
Take one shaped dough and roll it in the solution for 8 seconds. This is to ensure you get that deep brown color. The dough is slippery now because it's wet. Place it inside the loaf pan. Repeat with another two doughs.
Place all the shaped dough side by side. Gently press them down to fit the pan and so that they are the same height
Final proofing:
Cover the loaf pan with a plastic wrap and let it ferment until they reach the rim of the pan, about 1 hour at a warm place. 15 minutes before the end of the proofing, preheat oven to 350 F (180 C) for convection oven, 330 F (165 C) for convection oven
Baking:
Combine the egg with water using a whisk. Strain them if necessary so the white won't be in one blob. Brush this thinly on top of the dough. Sprinkle with some coarse salt or pretzel salt
Place the loaf pan in the middle of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. The time is just for reference. You may need to tent loosely with aluminum foil if the top gets browned too quickly.
The internal temperature of the bread should be at least 190 F (88C)
Remove from the oven and drop the pan on the counter once or twice and then gently unmould the bread and let it cool down completely on a cooling rack
Do not cut into freshly baked bread until it has cooled down completely, otherwise, you will ruin the crumbs