Pretzel Time

Yesterday, the kids and I enjoyed making pretzels. I have never tried this before with them, but I have memories of doing this when I was a kid. Since we aren't doing much outside, because of the mosquitoes, I decided to try this new recipe I got from Family Fun magazine...if you have never seen this magazine then you are missing out. It is full of recipes, crafts and fun ideas to do with your kids. I got a stack of them free at the library and I found this recipe in there (I also found a great egg roll recipe that I did with our homeschool group, what a blast that was).

Here is everyone while we were making the recipe...very simple ingredients (see bottom for recipe) and everyone got to join in. Note: Judah is in the picture, but he didn't care much about stirring the bowl like the rest of them, but he sure did like eating them, lol.

Here is everything put together...we let it rise for 45 minutes and it reached the top of the bowl...the kids loved the fact that it grew.

Here they are rolling out their "snakes." What a mess! I had flour on the ceiling before this was done. But that is the best part...watching them create. William wasn't too sure about how to do this...and I think Esther took a couple bites of the dough, yuck!

And here are the first creations...not as thin as the recipe pictures show, but you get the idea.

And everyone loved them. Here they are eating their "experiment." Let me tell you...they were so yummy and soft and quite wonderful. Worth every bit of mess!

Scrumptious Pretzels

1 3/4 cups of lukewarm water

1 packet of yeast

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

3 1/4 cups of unbleached flour (I used spelt)

1/4 cup of hot water

1 teaspoon of sugar

Kosher salt

3 tablespoons of melted butter

Pour yeast in lukewarm water, stir and wait five minutes...add brown sugar, salt and 2 cups of flour...stir 100 strokes. Gradually stir in rest of flour until semi firm, then knead for 7-8 minutes on a floured surface. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and coat ball of dough. Cover with saran wrap and put in warm place (I put mine right outside) for 45 minutes. Then take dough out, knead for 1 minute, divide in half and then divide new section into 3 parts..shape into ball, let rest for five minutes and then roll ball in your palms until 3 feet long and 3 inches thick. Heat oven to 450 degrees...make ropes into a circle, twist the end, fold back and pinch the dough (make it into familiar pretzel shape). Stir teaspoon of sugar in hot water and brush lightly on pretzels, then top off with kosher salt. Set pretzels aside for 10 minutes. Bake until golden brown for about 12-15 minutes, rotating well greased or oiled cookie sheet midway through baking. Let cool on wire rack with foil underneath..and brush melted butter liberally over the pretzels. Eat when warm. You can also sprinkle cinnamon sugar on or anything you desire!