Soft Pretzels & An Announcement

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?  Mine was WONDERFUL!!!  I truly missed my hubby, but the kids and I had SO much fun visiting my family in Boise!  I sure hope you all had as great of a Thanksgiving as we did.

Since the temperature has dropped considerably, I'm always in the mood to bake.  So, one chilly Saturday, I decided to try a new recipe for homemade soft pretzels because my kids were being especially good that day and this is what I usually get them when we go to the mall if they're good for me.  

They were SO excited that we were making our own big pretzels!  And I was excited that they weren't nearly as hard to make as I had imagined.  YAY!!  That just means we'll be making these often!

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1/2 tsp. brown sugar

1 1/2 C. hot water (about 110 degrees)

1/8 tsp. salt

3 1/2 C. bread flour (or you can use 3 1/4 C. all purpose flour, which is what I did)

1/2 C. butter, melted, used for after the pretzels have baked

Combine first three ingredients and allow to rest for 5 minutes.  Stir flour and salt to mixture and knead for 5 minutes. 

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.  

Divide dough into 8-12 equal size pieces (I went with 12), roll each piece into a rope, shape each rope into a pretzel or cut into bite sized pieces.  

*To roll into a rope, I found it worked best to shape the dough into a 6-inch long rope, then starting from the center, using both of your hands, roll the dough back and forth, moving your hands in opposite directions out to the ends of the dough.  Try not to break the dough.  I ended up with a dough rope that was about 18 inches long.

Lay pretzel onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 550 degrees for about 8-10 minutes for pretzels or 6-8 minutes for the pretzel bites.  Be careful when taking them out of the oven.  I had a couple that slid right off the pan!

                                         

There are different ways to finish these pretzels:

1.  Brush hot pretzels with melted butter and sprinkle with course salt.  Serve with a cheese sauce or plain.

2.  Combine melted butter with 2 Tbsp. honey; brush onto hot pretzels then sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  May serve with a thin icing for dipping or drizzling on top.

3.  Prior to baking the pretzels, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, a little garlic salt, and top with pepperoni slices; bake, then serve with marinara sauce.

We made our pretzels using the first two options and they were OUTSTANDING!!!  We all went a little crazy over them.  Out of the 11 full-sized pretzels and the 16 bites, there was only one full-sized pretzel left for my hubby by the time he got home from work.  Oops!

On to the announcement!  Since I was posting on these fun little buns in the oven today, I wanted to let everyone know that I too have a little bun in the oven!  We're so excited for our new addition on the way!!