Day 1 Soft Pretzels

Since it's a holiday, I decided to make a snack that the kids love. We pick up Auntie Anne's Pretzels from our local mall. I found a recipe in the Taste of Home's Baking Cook Book that I tweaked to fit our family's taste preferences.

Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups water
2 tablespoons baking soda
Kosher salt
Delallo Roasted Garlic and Cheese Dipping Spice


In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.



Add butter, sugar, salt and 2 cups flour.

Beat well, adding additional flour as needed to form a soft dough.


Cover and let rise for 20 minutes in a warm place. Punch down dough. Fill a large pan with the 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Roll the dough into long logs using your hands. I told my pre-school aged kids to make snakes, like they do with clay.



Loop the dough and cross at one end.


Cross the ends a second time. My oldest daughter was able to do the rolling and crossing in the air from watching the pretzel makers at the mall. I'm hoping to improve with more practice.


Add baking soda to boiling water. Boil the pretzels 2 at a time for 1 minute. Drain well on a cooling rack. Grease cookie trays or jelly roll pans. We just drained the first tray of pretzels, without cooling. Don't do that. They stuck to the bottom of the pan. The pretzels were too warm and melted the grease off the prepared cookie sheets.


Sprinkle the boiled pretzels with coarse salt or Dipping Spice. We prepared two batches and made 12 of each. Bake in a 475 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

These were delicious and so much fun to make. The kitchen wasn't trashed when we were through and I had several helpers. The children asked if I would make them again soon and make cream cheese dip.