Pretzel makin'

A, S's twin sister, wanted to be sure to be included in the blog, but baking sweets is pretty much out with her. A is very bright, but she lacks the self-control that S has in aces. The last time we attempted to make a sweet dessert together, I ended up with no clean spoons, because I had to keep replacing the one she kept sticking in her mouth, and we ended up stirring the batter with a TEASPOON. So after that, I decided that S would make sweets, and A could make savory dishes until she learned to control herself.

S and I have been eyeing recipes on Tastespotting, and A saw this recipe from Sweets by Sarah. "Can we make pretzels, Mommy?" How could I say no to that little face?

We ended up doubling the recipe because I only had packets of yeast, and I was too lazy to divide one in half. We also used all purpose flour because for something like this, I wasn't too worried about bread flour.

As the pretzels as per the recipe are smaller than Auntie Ann's (think the size of a snyder sourdough pretzel), it wasn't a huge deal to make more. In fact, we made half of them in the original size, and then used the other half of the dough to make six large sized pretzels. A also felt that some pretzels should be pretzel shaped, some should be twists, and some should be 'A's.

The results were good. I tend to prefer salted pretzels, but I remembered on first bite that I prefer Auntie Ann's pretzels sweet. Oops! For the next one I had, I used a cinnamon/sugar combo, and it was very much like the actual Auntie Ann's pretzel. A found that she liked the pretzels best plain, and in fact, she had one as the bread for a turkey and cheese sandwich, which she proclaimed "delicious." That's pretty remarkable, since she usually picks the meat and cheese off of the bread and tosses the bread.

We did not butter the pretzels until they were going to be eaten, and just packaged the pretzels after they cooled in ziplock bags. I have no idea how long they'll last -- hubby has been having *several* every night, and swears they taste just like Auntie Ann's. A is thrilled!