Soft Pretzels

Recently I stumbled across a blog called Hide the Cheese. I loved the creative name and soon the content and the pictures. I scrolled through countless blog posts and came across one for Homemade Soft Pretzels. Once I saw the picture, I HAD to have them.

A few days went by and finally I decided to make the pretzels to accompany some soup that I was making. I started at 2pm and mixed together the ingredients and then set aside the dough to rise. When I came back an hour later it had not doubled in size as the recipe told me it was. It occurred to me that since our house was, at that time, less than 62 degrees in the kitchen (because it was 62 upstairs and obviously I needed to turn the heat up), the dough wasn't warm enough to rise. So, I brought the bowl upstairs and turned up the heat. I waited an additional half hour and the dough....still didn't look that big but I decided to go for it anyway.

Now tell me, friends, when was the last time you rolled out a dough snake? Unless you hang out with kids all day, I'm guessing your answer will be something like 20 years ago. And that was my answer. I first tried to roll out dough snakes in the air but then I realized it would be lots easier if I rolled the snakes on the counter, with two hands, starting from the center and moving outward. So much easier! If you have kids around this is an activity that they can help you with!

Anyway, these pretzels were delicious and a great addition to our dinner table.

Recipe here.