Making Pretzels

This afternoon I had the bright idea that we should try making our own soft pretzels. I got this idea while grocery shopping the other day while hungry. I know never shop hungry. As I was walking past the freezers I saw the pretty blue box with the giant pretzels in it. They looked so yummy. They were on sale. I started to reach for them when I said to myself "Stop. You can make these. You have flour and yeast at home. You do not have to buy these processed pretzels. You can make a healthier version at home". It was definitely an interesting experience.

First the search for the perfect recipe. We decided to go with Alton Brown's recipe because, well, I just love him. I gathered all the ingredients together and the kids and I started mixing up the dough. So far, so good. Dough is mixed and we walk away to let it rise.

After an hour we returned to our dough. It doubled in size. Excellent. I cut it into 8 somewhat equal sizes and we start rolling. One of us can roll a little better than the others but I won't say who.

We make our pretzel shapes and lay them out on our cookie sheet. I then drop them one at a time into the boiling water and baking soda mixture. Some of the pretzels held their shape and some became pretzel sticks.

We sprinkled a little salt on top (and here is where it would have been handy to have some pretzel salt on hand) and popped them into our preheated oven. The wait was difficult but the timer beeped and out they came. Looking all yummy. But wait-they need to go on the cooling rack for 5 minutes. The torture, the sweet torture.

While we waited we each retrieved our mustard of choice for dipping. I like spicy brown and the kids wanted yellow. B-also wanted to melt some cheese but I wasn't going there.

Finally we sat down to try our pretzel blobs. Considering it was out first attempt I think they came out quite tasty if not beautiful. The kids definitely want to try again another day.