Saturday, August 23, 2008

Perfect kid food - Giant Pretzels

I posted this recipe on my personal blog many moons ago. It is one of my kids' very most favorite lunches ever. This time I let Rachel get in on the action of making them and she had a ball. I have also used this recipe to make letter shaped pretzels when I hosted preschool with good results.
Our favorite toppings are cinnamon sugar and kosher salt. On this sheet, we have six salt and one cinnamon. I have tried other things, like parmesan cheese and garlic salt, but we always go back to the old staples.
Rachel's favorites are the cinnamon sugar ones, hands down. I'm a salt girl myself.
Feast your eyes! Yum!
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This is the original recipe that I got from Taste of Home a few years ago. I tripled it and got 14 large pretzels out of it. I have found that they are best eaten immediately. I have one friend that freezes hers, but I'm a fresh bread kind of a girl.
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1 ½ t. active dry yeast
¾ cup warm water
1 ½ t. sugar
¾ t. salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 T. butter
coarse salt, cinnamon sugar, parmesan cheese and garlic powder, etc. for topping
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In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar and salt. Stir in flour, ½ cup at a time, to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes (dough will still be slightly sticky). Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
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Punch dough down and divide into six portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 14 inch rope; twist into a pretzel shape. Place on greased baking sheets. Brush with butter; sprinkle with your choice of topping. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Serve warm.

5 comments:

andrea said...

Looks good....I think I'll be trying this one out...Rachel doesn't seem to be a bit excited about it either! :) What a cutie.

Meri said...

My favorite part is the pink chef hat! Love that girl!

I always put in whole wheat flour too for nuttiness and highly recommend it.

Keeper of the Home said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Keeper of the Home said...

Is 1 1/2 cups the starting amount of flour? Is there supposed to be more later on?

Nurse Heidi said...

Hmmm, good question. It's been a few months since I've made these. I posted the quantity that was originally published in the taste of home cookbook I got these out of. I usually double or triple the batch, and then just add enough flour to make it work. One thing about flour is that the amount required will vary quite a bit depending on the type of flour, how packed down it is, the humidity level in the air, etc. 1 1/2 cups is a good starting point for this recipe, then knead in a bit more as necessary to form a dough that is soft, elastic, but still a bit sticky. Many of the doughs I make I add enough flour to get it past the sticky point, but this recipe specified not to in the original version.

I will make it again this week and revise it as necessary. Sorry for the confusion!