Pretzel Party!

The Boy and I recently made a batch of pretzels.  It was a total YUM experience.

The recipe as published on Allrecipes.com:

Golden Brown and Delicious!

Buttery Soft Pretzels

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
•  
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 4 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

I have used this recipe as published before.  It was very good, but at the time, it was a bit time consuming and "labor intensive".




This is what we did instead:

Throw all ingredients in bread machine on the dough setting.  (all but the soda, hot water and kosher salt)

Divided dough into 12-16 equal pieces

Twisted and dipped in the soda water, 

Sprinkle with kosher salt

Baked in 450 degree oven for 8 minutes

MUCH EASIER!

These chewy delights were gone in one evening!  Not only were they delicious, but we had so much fun playing with the dough together that the next weekend we hosted a pretzel party with the neighborhood kiddos.  We threw in a double batch of dough and had the Crazy Girls and Jaden come over to help. The Boy insisted on everyone wearing an apron so everyone picked their favorite and we got to work.

The Boy and Jaden

I think that Jaden seemed to work the hardest on his.  He was really fun to watch him try to get the perfect snake and the nicest twist to his.  The Boy did really well too.  Since he had already done them the previous week, he looked like a pro to the other kiddos, which, of course made him feel awesome.

The kids had such a great time.  They were the twisters.  It took a bit for them to get the hang of making the big long snake of dough, but once they did, they were unstoppable.  We ended up with over two dozen delicious twirled up bits of heaven.

The little Crazy Girl Having a blast!

The little Crazy Girl and I decided that we needed to have some sweet ones as well.  We experimented on when to add the cinnamon sugar and how to adhere it to the dough.

*We found that baking the dough after dipping it in the soda water, immediately brushing with butter, and adding the cinnamon sugar was the best route.  (We tried to add the topping prior to baking but the sugar melted all over the pan and didn't stick to the dough.  Not nearly as tasty and it was more difficult to clean up later)

Once all the pretzels were finished and cooled, the kiddos got to take some home and show their folks what they made.


 All in all, it was a complete success!  Happy Faces All Around.  We will definitely be doing that again.