SOFT WHOLE WHEAT PRETZELS

Now that Huck is in school, his appetite for learning and ability to focus on a task until completion has blown wide open. And now that he's away from me three days a week, our Tuesdays and Thursdays together have become extra special. So I've been trying to sit down on Sunday afternoons and plan out few special things we can do together on his home days to support what he's learning in preschool and make the days he doesn't get to see his friends just as fun and special and full of new experiences. It's almost like I'm planning lessons, hah! One of the things he's working on in school that Huck is loving is cooking. He's really grasping onto the idea of recipes and following steps, understanding where our food comes from, and finding satisfaction in eating something he's made himself. (It's also helped him be willing to try more food and mealtimes have gotten so much easier because of it. THANK YOU, PRESCHOOL!) It's been really fun for us to approach our days together in a more structured way, discover these new things together, and to have Huck teach me everything he's learned in school, like a few weeks ago, when he was able to demonstrate how he was taught to knead dough.

Huck asked me one night at bedtime last week if we could make soft pretzels together the next day. I asked him what we'd need to get the next day at the store, and as Huck dictated our shopping list, he literally fell asleep mid-ingredients. "Flour, salt, *yaaawwwwn* yeast . . . " What a doll. I will never feel as humbled as I feel when I'm able to watch my baby slip blissfully into the unconsciousness of sleep. Cute, cute boy.

Anyway it turns out soft pretzels are stupidly simple, and hard to screw up.

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

INGREDIENTS

1 1/8 teaspoon dry active yeast (one packet)

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/8 tablespoons salt

1 cup bread flour (i used whole wheat bread flour)

3 cups regular flour

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons baking soda

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Sprinkle yeast into 1 1/2 cups warm water and stir until dissolved

2. Add brown sugar and salt, and stir until dissolved

3. Add all flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky

4. Let rise for 30-45 minutes

5. Once dough has risen, add baking soda to 2 cups warm water in a wide, shallow dish, for dipping formed pretzels.

6. Pinch off pieces of dough, roll into ropes, and tie into pretzel shapes (you can get creative with this one!)

7. Dip formed pretzel into baking water mixture then lay on a greased baking sheet. 

8. Let formed pretzels rise another 15-20 minutes

9. Bake in 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or just until tops are golden. (if tops are browning before insides can bake, consider lowering the oven temp and adding a few minutes' baking time)

10. Brush with butter and sprinkle with coarse sea salt (or cinnamon + sugar) (or you name it!)