Soft Pretzels: Fun Baking for Kids ~ By Tammy Paquin

With three growing boys, the battle to keep healthy, easy and relatively inexpensive snacks in the house always seems to be one I feel I’m losing.  Combine that with the fact that the time it takes to keep up with the baking and cooking leaves me feeling like that’s all I do:  bake, bake and bake some more!   So when I found this soft pretzel recipe, I knew I had a win/ win recipe!  It was fun and easy for the boys to make for me and provided them with an inexpensive and healthy snack!

Soft Pretzel Recipe

½ cup of warm water
1 cup of warm milk
4 cups of all purpose flour
1 TBS of sugar
1 ¼ tsp of salt
2 ¾ tsp of yeast

Topping:
1 egg white mixed with 1 TBS of water-you’ll brush this on top of the pretzels so that the toppings will stick

OPTIONAL:
Water bath:  The water bath gives these pretzels that dark brown slightly crunchier outer layer.  My guys don’t like this so I skip this part and go straight to brushing with the egg wash but I’ll include this part for you.

-2 qts of water
-2 TBS of baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix the ingredients for the pretzels in your stand mixer or bread machine like you were making bread. Allow dough to rise for about an hour or about doubled.   Divide the dough into equal portions (at least 12).  The kids can roll the portions into long ropes and them fashion them into pretzels (whatever shape makes them happy).

Allow the pretzels to rise another 20 minutes or so and if you want that brown, caramelized outer pretzel, start heating your water with the baking soda.  You don’t want it boiling but you do want hot.  If you have a slotted spoon or other supportive kitchen utensil, it’s perfect because you can place the pretzel on the spoon and ‘cook’ it in the water for 30 seconds before removing it and placing on the greased baking sheet.  Repeat with all the pretzels.

**You can easily skip the boiling water bath and allow the pretzels to rise and then go to the egg wash and toppings step.  The pretzels will bake to a light ‘bread’ color. **
Then brush the egg wash over the pretzels and sprinkle them with kosher salt, or cinnamon/sugar, maybe a mix of Parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings.  Bake the pretzels for about 18 minutes until golden brown.  Remove them to a cooling rack when they’re done and hope they’ll last longer than 2 hours in the house!

Tammy Paquin is a work-from-home mom of 3 boys and the owner and publisher of Frugal-Families, an online resource for frugality, finances, budgeting and everything else related to stretching the dollar and living well while spending less. For more great recipes and money saving ideas visit, Frugal-Families.com/recipes