Soft preztel

This is recipe from Food Network. My daughter wanted to bring pretzels to share at school Christmas party. Since she is learning cooking at Living Skills class at school, she did most of the work :-)

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 cup
Active dry yeast  - 2 and 1/4 tsp
Light brown sugar - 3 TBSP packed
All-purpose flour - 2 and 1/4 cups
Unsalted butter - 10 TBSP
Salt - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/3 cup
Coarse salt - 2 TBSP

Steps:

1. Microwave milk in a bowl until it's about 110°F. Add yeast and brown sugar, make sure the yeast and sugar is fully dissolved.
2. In mixing bowl, add milk solution, 1 teaspoon of fine salt, 2 tablespoons of butter, flour, and use stand mixer to knead into sticky dough. Put the dough covered and let it rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 450°F and grease a large baking sheet.
4. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. (If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes.) Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 30-inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a pretzel shape.

5. Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

6. Melt the remaining 8 tablespoons butter in a shallow dish. Dip the hot pretzels in the butter, turning to coat; place on a wire rack to let excess butter drip off. Serve the pretzels warm.