Pretzels

Who does not like large, soft pretzels? I love them. I rarely ate them, because as a treat they were just too much to buy all the time at the mall, but I would take a nice long sniff as I walked past Aunt Annie's or Wetzels Pretzels. I wanted to be able to enjoy these treats more often then once a year. I knew that would require making them. I was little nervous about making pretzels. I didn't want to ruin them and I thought they might be complicated. One day I ran into an issue of what to have for dinner and I was craving pretzels. That night I went for it and decided to try making pretzels. I decided to use the recipe from http://www.recipeboy.com/2014/01/how-to-make-homemade-soft-pretzels/

Turns out making pretzels was not that complicated. Making the dough was pretty simple, it was a lot like making bread. I think the most complicated part was twisting the dough into pretzel shape. After making eight balls with the dough, I would roll each dough out as long as I could, like making a snake with play dough. Then I would twist the ends around each other twice before bring down the edges to the middle section. Then I would shape the dough to look like a pretzel.

After cooking and buttering the pretzels we ate them. I and my kids loved them. They were delicious. I have made this recipe twice with great results each time. The first time I shaped all the dough before dipping it in the water/baking soda bath and the second time I dipped the dough immediately after shaping. It did not make a difference to the flavor or taste or size. They were still delicious.