Making Pretzels

Savannah and I love to bake. Last year, Wayne got soft pretzel mix from his friend at work. We had such a good time making them. In fact, I believe I blogged about it. When Savannah brought home her fundraising packet from school, I saw that they had soft preztel mix. I was even more excited to find out that it was organic soft pretzel mix! Here are some pictures of this years batch of pretzels.

Look, ma. Organic!



Pouring the mix into the bowl.



After adding the water, oil, and yeast, mix, mix, mix.



Kneading the dough is fun!



Daddy lending moral support.



Separating the dough into equal sized portions. (Yes, my daughter is a dork... :) The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.)



Rolling the dough to make into the pretzel shape.



Fresh out of the oven. We've got your typical pretzel shape, a butterfly, a heart, and the figure 8 for one of Savannah's favorite shows "John and Kate Plus 8." In fact, she kept calling it her "John and Kate Plus 8" pretzel.



The finished product. I only made two with sea salt on top. The others were made into cinnamon 'n sugar pretzels. They were very yummy.



I was just looking at last year's blog about making pretzels, and I'm surprised that I made them at all this year!  I now remember what a hard time we had.  We didn't have ANY of those problems this year.  Of course, it was much warmer this time than the last time, so that may have contributed to the ease of this batch of pretzels.

"Not-so-guilty" pleasure

Trader Joe's Gone Bananas! Chocolate Dipped Bananas.  It's my newest not-so-guilty pleasure.  I ran into a friend of mine from high school at Trader Joe's.  Between talking about pregnancy, kids, and old friends she pulled out a box of Gone Bananas!  "Have you tried these?"  I hadn't, and actually I've never really been a big fan of frozen bananas, mostly because when I'm going to get a desert, I want it to be ice cream, or a brownie, or a piece of cake.  I have been staying away from deserts though, because I have in recent months put on a few (*cough* 15 *cough*) pounds.  She made a good point though.  It's a fruit.  Plain and simple.  It's a frozen banana.  Sure, it's got a hard chocolate coating, but in the scheme of things, that's nothing!  I picked up a box.

I brought the box home, and Wayne and I had one for desert that night.  He said that the first few bites were really good but then it just became "ok."  I loved it the entire time!  I thought it was so yummy.  I looked up the Weight Watchers points, and it's only 4.  That may seem like a lot for a desert but remember, 2 of those points are from a banana.  Not so high anymore, huh?

Conclusion:  Trader Joe's Gone Bananas! Chocolate Dipped Bananas is a new staple in the Fox household.  Are they as good as a big bowl of Extreme Moosetracks ice cream?  No.  But they come is close second.

Soooo Waldorf!

Savannah and I made homemade pretzels yesterday.  Although she had fun, I have to say they were a pain in the butt!  I'd never baked with live yeast before, so that was an experience.  Luckily one of my bestfriends, Natalie bakes a lot so she was able to help me. 

 Getting the space ready was easy.  I let Savannah do it all by herself.  She was great and so neat when spreading flour over the countertop.



Savannah and I kneaded the dough...







  ...we put it upstairs in her bedroom where it was nice and warm.  But not warm enough, because it took forever for the dough to rise.  So, using Natalie's help, we turned the oven on to 100 degrees and kept it open a crack and put the dough in there to rise.  So much better!

Now the hard part came.  Savannah tried to help, but she got frusterated.  Rolling the dough into long ropes to make the pretzel.  The first two were too thick.  The last five were ok, but my arms were so sore by the end!

 Unfortunetly, I didn't take pictures of the final project.  But trust me.  They weren't anything to behold.  They were tasty though!  I made half with salt and half with cinnamon and sugar.  Did I mention they were tasty!  :D