In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the water (1 ½ cups), sugar, salt, yeast, bread flour and melted butter. Mix on low for 1 minute to combine, then knead on medium/low speed for 5 minutes. The dough will be thick and balled up on the dough hook.

Lightly spray a large bowl with non-stick spray, and scrape the dough into the bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. Inside your oven with the bread-proofing setting or just the heat from the interior light is ideal.It should take about 45-60 minutes to rise.

Preheat the oven to 450 F, and position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large stock pot, combine the 10 cups of water with the baking soda and bring to a boil.

Dump the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper, and dust the dough very lightly with flour, just so it isn't too sticky. Cut the dough into 8 equal portions. Now roll and stretch each portion into a rope that's about 18-20 inches long. The ropes do not need to look perfect, but they should generally be about the same thickness.

Shape each rope of dough into a pretzel shape. Working with one pretzel at a time, use your kitchen spider/strainer to lower the pretzels into the boiling water. Boil for 30 seconds, then lift out and set back on the parchment paper. Repeat boiling each pretzel for 30 seconds.

Arrange your pretzels on the baking sheets, 4 on each so they have room to spread a little. Use a pastry brush to brush the pretzels with the beaten egg.

Now sprinkle your pretzels with toppings. You can keep them simple with just coarse pretzel salt (I used large crystals of Himalayan pink salt), or add grated cheddar cheese and sliced jalapenos. You could even make a sweet version by sprinkling them with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

Bake the pretzels (you can put both baking sheets in at the same time on separate racks) for about 15-20 minutes, until the color is a deep golden brown.

Stir together the mustard, horseradish sauce and honey until smooth.

Serve the pretzels warm, or at room temperature, with the mustard sauce.