Pretzels

This recipe came home with my girls from a youth activity.  They are pretty fast for a yeast dough and very yummy!  We made them with golf ball sized balls of dough, but you could make them as big as you want. This is a great recipe to get the kids busy in the kitchen, the dough is easy to work with!  Have everyone roll their own pretzel, or skip the pretzel shape and make initials or animals.

Pretzels
4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sugar
4 tsp. yeast
1/4 c. oil
1 1/2 c. hot water

In a mixer bowl, fitted with a dough hook, combine all the dry ingredients and mix for 2 seconds.  Then add oil and hot water.  Turn on the mixer and watch the ingredients come together, add more flour a little at a time if needed to make the dough clean the sides of the bowl.  It should be a soft dough. (I added almost 1 more full cup to do this.)  Cover the dough and let it rest 10 min. Divide the dough into golf ball sized balls.

Roll the dough into long ropes and form into pretzels.  Place on parchment paper-lined pans.

Using a pastry brush, brush the pretzels with a little bit of water and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10-12 min. or until golden brown.

One of my daughters likes them sprinkled with cinnamon sugar instead of salt.  You can top them with what ever you like.  You can also leave out the water step and just bake them, then brush with butter while they are hot and top with your favorites then.

Jenny