Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Last night when Mark and I went to bed we fell asleep watching a special on pretzels on the Food Network. They sure did look good. This morning Noah asked if we could do preschool. Now before I go on I must explain a few things. First, Noah doesn't ask to do much of anything with me lately so I had to think up something quick for preschool. Second, the reason I do preschool with Noah instead of sending him somewhere else is because in CT (at least in our part of the state) it costs $4000.00 to have your child "socialized" for ten months. That is almost two semesters at BYU and a price I refuse to pay for someone else to do, especially when it's something I can do myself.
So, back to the story, Noah wanted to do the letter "M" for preschool and play Monkey Ball on the Nintendo. I explained that even though Monkey Ball did start with "M" we weren't going to play Nintendo for preschool. Thanks to last night's special I immediately suggested "P" for pretzels. Noah gave in grudgingly and we jumped right in making pretzel dough and "pretzel and popcorn art." Both boys liked gluing the pretzels and popcorn on the paper and the pretzels were a HUGE success. We all liked eating them and they were especially easy to make. Anyway, I just thought I'd share the idea with those of you mom's who are looking for an idea to pass the afternoon with instead of watching another Disney movie or roasting in the sun at the park. My kids didn't get to shape the pretzels (because they were having "meltdown") but it is definitely simple enough even a two year old can do it. Afterall, who says a pretzel has to be in the shape of a knot? Hope you have fun and enjoy! I have a feeling we'll be doing it again real soon.
   
Aunt Annie's Pretzels
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1/2 tsp. brown sugar
1 dash salt
1 1/2 cups 110 degree water
4 cups bread flour
1 T baking soda
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup melted real butter
toppings (see Notes, below)
Combine first 4 ingredients; allow to rest for 5 minutes. Stir flour 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; roll each piece into a rope; shape each rope into a pretzel. In a shallow dish, stir baking soda into warm water; dip pretzels into mixture; lay coated pretzel onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 550 degree oven for 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush melted butter onto hot pretzels.
Notes: For salted pretzels, sprinkle with pretzel salt or Kosher salt. For cinnamon-sugar pretzels, stir 2 T honey into the melted butter before brushing on pretzels, then sprinkle with a mixture of 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp. ground cinnamon. For Parmesan pretzels, sprinkle with a mixture of 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese and 1 tsp. garlic salt; serve with marinara sauce.
posted by Shana # 2:28 PM 
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