Having Some Fun and Making Pretzels With The Girls

My next set of pictures is a Pretzel Making Party I had for the girls.  We had a fun time and the homemade pretzels were amazing:)

I'll start with the recipe we used:

Pretzels

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)   

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two more tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease 2 baking sheets.

In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in 4 cups hot water; set aside. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda-hot water solution and place pretzels on baking sheets. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake in preheated oven until browned, about 8 minutes.

After the dough was made everyone got a hunk of their own dough to knead:

This dough is very forgiving which makes it great for young people to learn how to make:)

More kneading, rolling and squishing:)

Mike and Princess waiting for a sample:)

 
After Kneading the dough, the girls rolled it out and made their pretzel shapes:

And:

Each pretzel shape gets dipped into the baking soda water mix before going on the silpat(baking mats)

Then they get baked and now for the best part.



Yummy fresh homemade pretzels:)

Time to eat:)

And we are ready:

Oops....Em reminded me that I didn't have her favorite treat.  She is making homemade peppermint patties which are so good.  Hmm....maybe next time we will dip the pretzels into melted peppermint chocolate, lol.

Quick story with some great girls and some fun baking.  Next up...back to work.  See you next week for some more fencing.