Pretzels

Today, I did something I've wanted to do for years. We made homemade pretzels. I have a recipe for the dough in my breadmaker cookbook that we followed.

First we made the dough and let the breadmaker do all the kneading. The dough we made rose for about an hour and half in the warm breadmaker.

Next we put flour all over the counter. We cut the dough into twelve pieces. We rolled our pieces into long snakes and then shaped them into pretzel shapes. We covered the pretzels with plastic wrap and let them 'rest' for thirty minutes.

Next step was boiling the pretzels. I used a large roasting pan set over two burners. (Next time I will use just a large kettle on one burner.) With two inches boiling, we put the pretzels in. 1 and half minutes on each side. The got SO much bigger!


We drained the water off the pretzels, then dipped them in a water/baking soda bath. Then they were ready to be baked.



Apparently, we didn't take an after baking picture. They were some of the ugliest pretzels I've ever seen, but if you asked our tummies what they thought they would smile.

I had let the boil then bake process intimidate me for years, and I can truly say it was no big deal. Pretzel making was a project the whole family could enjoy making.... and eating.