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Prep time includes one hour for the dough to proof.
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In a mixer bowl, stir sugar and salt into the warm water (make sure that your temperature is between 100 and 110 F). Dissolve yeast in the same bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes until yeast foams. This will let you know that the yeast is alive and well.
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Using a wooden spoon, stir in both the all-purpose and wheat flours (if including the flax seed meal add that now as well) until wet and dry ingredients begin to form into a dough.
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At this stage, using the dough hook attachment for your mixer, knead dough at medium speed until smooth and elastic, about four minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, wipe bowl clean and apply vegetable oil to the bowl. Then add the dough back into the bowl and turn to coat the dough with oil.
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Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for about an hour. I usually place it in my warming drawer on proof or in a preheated oven that has been turned off. The ideal temperature for rising should be between 80F and 90F (again, oven should be off). It should at least double in size.
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Once it's risen, remove dough from the turned off oven. Next, preheat your oven to 450 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Now it is time to form your dough into your desired shape. I needed longer, slightly curved rolls to go with the German Oktoberfest bratwurst I was serving on them. You could also make round rolls or pretzel shapes. They are amazingly tasty in any form!
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Place the dough on an oiled surface. Cut the dough into eight fairly equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope using your hands. You will need them to be about two feet long. For the long rolls, I fold the rope into equal halves and overlap the sides like a braid and then stick both ends to each other and press together firmly.
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Place the hot water into a wide microwaveable bowl large enough to dip pretzel rolls into. Microwave the bowl of water until water begins to boil. Carefully remove from microwave and add the baking soda. Stir to dissolve.
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One by one, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution for approximately 20 seconds. Remove to a parchment covered baking sheet and immediately sprinkle with sea salt.
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Bake in the 450 F oven for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven.
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Once you remove them from the oven transfer to a cooling rack to keep moisture from softening the bottoms. At this point they may look a little dry and it's OK. This is where the butter comes in. You don't need much, just enough to glaze the tops of the pretzels. Some of the salt may fall off during this process, so feel free to sprinkle on a little more if you like.
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If you can stand to wait 10-15 minutes before eating them, the butter will completely absorb into the pretzels.
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Note: An alternative to the butter, should you not wish to add the extra fat or calories would be an egg wash made by beating one egg with 2 tablespoons of water. Brush this on and then sprinkle with sea salt before baking. It will leave your pretzel rolls golden and shiny.
