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The SITS Girls

The Secret to Success is Support

Recipe Monday: Homemade Pretzels {with your kids!}

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We have a very busy spring planned here on SITS. Now that we have one Bloggy Boot Camp underneath our belts, we are diving back into our website content with full force! For starters, we are morphing our Style channel into Food and Lifestyle. What this means is that we’ll still be covering shops and products we love, but we’re also expanding our focus to include posts on cooking and travel. It is a change we’re incredibly excited about.

To help us deliver this content, we’ve invited Emily Louise, a WONDERFUL blogger, longtime SITStah, and cherished friend. She blogs regularly at little momma & co. We adore Emily’s bright, fun posts, as well as her commitment to get her boys in the kitchen with her as often as possible. Here’s a little more about our latest contributor:


SITS Food EditorEmily is the apron-wearing, camera-wielding, daily blogger behind Little Momma and Company. Blogging since 2006, she’s found her niche in discovering a reason to celebrate every day and enjoy the simple things life has to offer. While her true passion is cooking and finding ways to pull her children into the kitchen with her, Emily also loves running her own photography business, teaching children’s cooking classes, serving in her church and community, and traveling with her husband, the pilot.

 

You can find Emily’s posts in the Food & Lifestyle channel on Mondays and Wednesdays going forward.  To get things started, Emily is teaching us all about pretzel making as part of her Recipe Monday…

When I say that I am a huge fan of cooking with your kids, it’s an understatement!

I’ve got my boys trained!

They’re wives better thank me someday… seriously. When they see that their husband can whip out the best gazpacho this side of the Mississippi, well then– I’ll expect a thank you card, and maybe flowers.

I use every kitchen opportunity to pull them in and teach–not only cooking but even math, science, and reading. It’s been a huge gateway for learning in our house.

And, it’s learning with benefits!

How often can a math lesson end with warm, chewy pretzels? I don’t ever remember any of my math lessons ending that way. (usually my math lessons only ended in tears! Dang math!)

Pretzels are one of our families favorite recipes. I think it’s because it requires so many steps.

Mixing, rising, rolling, cutting, twisting, baking, boiling, sprinkling. It’s all there. So many fun things to keep our hands busy.

My boys love the measuring part best. (Mathematic skills!)


And, of course– kneading is a close second. (Hand & eye coordination!)



And, my favorite part of pretzel making– is twisting!
It’s to easy, let me show you how.
Twist once, twist twice, and fold down. Poke your little fingers into the ends so they stay and place, and that’s it!

See?? Isn’t that easy?After a pre-bake, the pretzels are boiled for a few minutes, to help them form that outside skin.

Then, they are sprinkled with coarse sea salt, and baked again.

Mmmmmm!

Now, grab your kids– head to the kitchen, and practice your math, science, and reading skills! And, don’t forget the mustard.

Homemade Pretzels

4 C flour
1 package yeast
1 1/2 C milk
1/4 C sugar
2 T cooking oil
1 t salt
–
2 T salt
egg white (for a wash)
In a mixing bowl (or mixer) stir together the flour and yeast.
In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, oil and salt just until warm.
Slowly add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and mix well.
Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead to make a stiff but elastic dough. Oil the dough and let rise for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Punch the dough down, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick.
Cut into strips. Shape into pretzels. Put pretzels on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 475 for 4 minutes.
Dissolve 2 T of salt into a pot of boiling water. Boil the pretzels 2 or 3 at a time for 2 minutes apiece. 1 minute per side. Place on a paper towel to drain. Put the pretzels back on the greased baking sheet.
Brush pretzels with the egg white, sprinkle with salt. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

Enjoy!!!

About Francesca

Francesca has an extensive background in content marketing, public relations, and social outreach. She oversees all Operations at Sway Group, including our robust metrics capabilities. Prior to joining the online world, Francesca oversaw viticulture and oenology at various wineries in both California and Italy, and managed regulatory affairs and facility approvals at the biotech company, Genentech. Francesca has been featured on CBS Sacramento and Food Blogger Pro’s podcast. She has also hosted an AMA webinar and spoken at Social Media World.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. [email protected] says

    awww this is sooo sweet!! I can’t wait till someday I have sons and daughters to cook and bake with!! that’s quite admirable actually~And although this recipe looks rather tedious, it doesn’t seem difficult, love it 🙂

  5. Patty says

    That looks fun! I think I may try these out this week with my boys!
    Thanks and looking forward to more posts. I am from Texas 🙂

  8. Marie Cole says

    Love how you are teaching your boys early on how to cook…My hubby knows nothing..He wants to learn though so I am better off than most women, so we have fun at it, but I bet he wishes he learned early on. By the way, those pretzels look soo good, I will be right over. 😉

  10. Jade @ No Longer 25 says

    Aww yum! These look so so good and easy. I loved cooking as a child and hope that if I have kids in the future I’ll be able to pass on a passion for food to them.

    We tried making pretzels once but they turned out too salty – I’ve been meaning to give them another try. Also it’s always good to practice your maths – right?!

    Have a lovely evening,
    Jade

    • Emily says

      Yes! Try again! My grandma would always say to keep cooking one meal over and over again until you are good at it-and then move on to the next one! Let me know how it goes, I would love to hear about it!

  11. Pattyann says

    Oh, this sounds like a really fun activity! I can’t wait to try it with the girls!! Thank you so much for sharing!

    • Emily {Little Momma} says

      My boys love to be in the kitchen, in fact– they ask to help now. In a few years, if I work things out just right, it should run like a well oiled machine and maybe I could get a few nights off from dinner duty a week?! That’s the plan anyway!

  14. Kara says

    We make pretzels all the time at our house. I’ve never thought to roll the dough out and cut strips. Looks much easier than rolling the dough in ropes. I’ll have to give it a try.

  17. Sarah says

    They look oh so yummy! My three year old might have a hard time sticking with me for all the steps, but I know she’d LOVE to get her hands on the dough! Thanks for sharing!

  18. Lindsey says

    These look easy – I’m normally terrified of trying any recipe involving yeast. I think I’m going to try them today!

  19. Laura/SemperFiMomma says

    I’ve always wanted to try making pretzels at home, and my son (3.75) is at the age where he really enjoys helping me in the kitchen and loves to get involved. Going to definitely give this one a try.

    • Emily says

      Your son will love it! I think my kids eat better and are willing to try new foods when I let them participate in our food prep! Good luck!

  25. Living the Balanced Life says

    These look yummy! Will have to give it a try! BTW, my 10 year old is a chef in the making! He makes gourment wine jelly with his mom and they sell at local farmer markets. His idol is Bobby Flay, lol!
    Bernice