The Versatile Pretzel

We have been at VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the church all week.  Whew, it was a tiring but oh so rewarding week!  One of my parts of it was to make pretzels.  Not the hard stick kind but the big, soft, mall type.  Actually, I didn't have to make the pretzels, just the dough.  The kids did the shaping as part of their craft (a craft that you can eat is ALWAYS fun!).  Now I have to be honest, yeast scares me.  I procrastinated for way too long on this project!  I love to cook and I actually make all of our bread but I cheat.  I use a bread maker.  Throw it all in, turn it on and walk away.  I love it!  But for the pretzels I wasn't going to get off that easy!

Did you know that there are TONS of different ways to make pretzels???  I didn't until I started researching them.  Boiling them, dipping them in a baking soda/water mixture, letting the dough rise, shaping them and then letting them rise etc...too much work for dough that was going to manhandled by a bunch of kiddos!  I needed quick and easy and forgiving!

This is the recipe that I found: http://www.grouprecipes.com/100596/easy-soft-pretzels.html   The only difference that made to the recipe was to cut the salt down to 1/2 TBSP instead of the 1 TBSP that it calls for.  This is a phenomenal recipe!  They are yummy, easy, and so easy for kids (and adults!) to shape (plus they taste good warm from the oven or cold the next morning!).  They puff up quite a bit so smaller designs may not work all that well, other than that they are flawless.  Oh, we also wrapped some dough around some hot dogs for dinner and put them in the oven, yum!!  SOOOOOO good!  We will be adding pretzel dogs to our movie/game night menu!  I love quick, easy, and homemade!  Here's some pics of what they look like when cooked.

One of the "prettier" pretzel pictures...well, except for my cookie sheet.  =)

Cross examples for the kids for VBS