I don't plan on baking everyday, but our two eldest kids had gone back to school, leaving Ben & Nathan at home. Getting into the baking spirit, they asked if we could make something. I gave them the choice, and Ben chose Pretzels.
Now I have to say that our experience of pretzels is limited to the delicious "Mr Pretzel" stall at Bluewater - they offer free samples, which our kids always try! I had a feeling that we were going to be disappointed by the home made ones, and I was right!
We started off by making the "pastry". It seemed very sticky to me, and I had to use quite a lot of flour in order to knead the mixture. It then had to be chilled. By this time, the boys had realized that these pretzels were not going to be as big as the Mr Pretzel ones and began to lose interest! By the time the mixture had finished chilling in the fridge the boys were both otherwise engaged and I was left to tie the knots - no I can't even blame the boys for my attempts -its harder than it looks!
The finished result made 10 pretzels rather than the 16 that Mary said. Her ones must be really small, but there is no picture to compare them with. We dipped them in icing sugar mixed with cinnamon (Mary suggests just icing sugar), and this did redeem them slightly!
The taste test gave the pretzels an average of 5.5
Part of me feels like I could do with trying them again to check that I didn't make a mistake, but as I still have 216 other recipes to do, they might have to wait!
My lot love Mr. Pretzel too, and a certain member of our family has been known to do two "passes" around their stand for free samples! Do you bake these in the oven, and were they light? I think the knot tying comes with practise, but with a whole recipe book to get through, you haven't really got the luxury of time.
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