Diary of a Pretzel

I love those big soft pretzel you get at the mall, so a while ago I looked up a recipe on my fav recipe website allrecipes.com and tried it out.  Super easy, super delicious!  Wehn we moved to Arkansas, we went to the grocery store, but ddin't get any snack/dessert type items, both because we don't really need them in the house, and because we are trying to keep a tight budget.  By Friday we were ready for a little treat, and we had to use whatever we had on hand, so we did sugar cookies.  Butter, flour, sugar.  They were good.  The next week I found a box of cake mix in our 'food box' so we made some cake.  This week, I got out my pretzel recipe.  I had been moving my yeast around whenever I looked through my spices, and it inspired me.

So, pretzels!

After mixing all the ingredients, (mostly flour, sugar and yeast) and kneading the dough,  it sits for a while to rise.  Then you get this!

 Okay, this is half the dough.  And it isn't as light and fluffy because it sat in the fridge all night.  But it still worked.

 Then I took a strip of dough and rolled it out long. This may look like it's sticking straight out, but if you look at the background it's just the picture on its side.  I haven't figured out how to rotate images on Evan's computer yet.  Mostly because I haven't tried.

Make a loop with a twist at the bottom...

Flip it up and press the ends! TADA- pretzeled.

A little bath in water and baking soda

Then put it on the pan and sprinkle with salt.

Bake it about 8 minutes and they come out golden brown like this!

These were delicious too.  Today I tried putting salt on the pan first to keep it from sticking, which it did, but it also absorbed all the salt from underneath in addition to what was on top, making them almost unbearable.  I think I'll go back to just pan and having to scrape them off.  They taste better even if they are more hassle.

Hopefully I get a job soon- then I won't be enticed to blog about every. Single. Thing. I. Do.  Until then expect to see more amazing entries about the excitement that is Arkansas.