Snow Day Pretzel...fun??

So, another snow day is upon us.  Last night, I suspected this would happen and announced to my kids we'd be making soft pretzels the next day.  I wanted to ensure they'd have warm, happy memories of mom and snow days.  Interesting experience.  That's all I can say. 

It all started with Pinterest (stop....you're not that shocked, are you?).  Of course, the two recipes my pins linked back to were unsatisfactory to me.   Probably too many steps, time or something like that.  So, I go to the Food Network.  Trusted source, right?  I am sure Alton's recipe is fine, but I was saying bad words to him in my head almost the whole time...well, not the time the dough was rising...I stopped because it started to look promising at that point...maybe it was all fine and how it's supposed to be, but it sure didn't look or feel like it.  I mean, those pretzel bakers at the mall are never covered in sticky, gooey dough...

Anyway, here's how it all went down...

I found Alton's recipe here...http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe.html and proceeded to gather ingredients and supplies.  I quickly scanned the recipe, rather than reading step by step, nice and slow...against my better judgement.  I mean, how hard can it be...plus I have three kids waiting for their turn to make their pretzels.  So, I added the ingredients as the recipe stated (I think...).  It looked like this:

Yeah, I know.  Hard to see as my mixer was whirling so quickly.  Something seemed off, so I continued, after checking the recipe (oops!  Didn't quite follow Alton's instructions) to let it whirl away, but at a slower speed.  In the meantime, I prepped a bowl-lightly greased it, as instructed.  Upon transferring the dough (okay, attempting the transfer...), this is what I got...

 

 

Ummm....still, something's off, but being a pretzel novice, I scraped off what I could from my hands and the mixing bowl and got this...Did I mention I had three kids in the kitchen wanting lunch, asking questions about everything under the sun, needing this, that or the other?

 

 

 

Then, it was time to let it rise!  I put it in my warm oven, covered with a towel.   This is when it started to look like things were turning around.  Isn't it beautiful?

 

Did I also mention that I decided to try a new bread recipe today?  And that I made changes to the new recipe I am trying this day?  So, this beauty had to wait while I finished up with the bread dough.  Then, I turned it out onto my counter...still looks promising-ish, right?

Yeah, not so much, huh?

 

This is where it gets stressful.  My delightful children think I can do and know everything.  At least I think that's why they were making me feel like we were playing 20 questions after I called them in once I'd "divided" the dough.  They took turns shaping their pretzels as I dunked them in the boiling mixture for 30 seconds or so...I was wise to make the 4 year old wait.  Things weren't looking like I thought they should.  It was sticky, icky and gooey.  It was hard to shape.  It was not looking good.  Not at all.  All I could do was a simple pretzel "stick" because it was so sticky and didn't go where I wanted.  Of course, my older two persisted (impressive as they are not always so persistent) and got pretzel-like shapes eventually.  Still, I wasn't convinced this was going to be worth all our time and wasted ingredients, not to mention the mess we were making.

 

Then, suddenly, as some of the pretzels were boiling in the solution, all hope, well, a tiny little sliver of hope, actually, was restored.

 

 

That smell...oooh....must be the yeast?  Whatever it was, it smelled like pretzels....Fingers crossed!

 

Little one took his turn.  Too stressful for little hands to do much with the dough.  "You do it, mommy, " he says as he runs off.  So I finished up and, ta daaaaah...

 

We had pretzels!

 

 

 

"...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing."

 

~Julia Child