This is a very good, very easy recipe. I have a cramped kitchen, but did fine, thank to having an out-of-the-way place to rest the dough while prepping the baking trays and making the soda bath. A good set-up also helps in the shaping-dipping-tray phase, so plan your space accordingly. An easy tip on cooling the soda bath: boil 1/2 cup water in a heat-proof glass measure, dissolve the soda, let cool slightly, then fill with another 1/2 cup of cold water. The idea here is to fill a pan to a shallow depth, so the amount of soda bath you make has no proportion to the recipe itself; it has more to do with the size of your water bath pan. If you have a pan larger than 9" square (81 sq in), then multiply the 1 cup/2 tbs ratio upward to fill your pan one to two inches deep, if you need to dip more pretzels at one go. The biggest thing I learned was that parchment paper alone does NOT work! The pretzels stuck to it like glue. Still, except for the bottom crust that was left behind on the paper, the pretzels came out great. When I cooked the second bunch, I skipped the parchment paper and used a very generous coating of vegetable oil spray with much better success. Instead of brushing on the butter, you can also serve pretzels as a small plate and let guests drizzle the liquid butter on themselves (I mean, on their pretzels) :).

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