So I had an idea.
My idea was to make pretzels with the kids.
And a few of their friends.
Over vacation.
I didn't do a lot (or any really) advance planning--ok, I did buy yeast on my last trip to the grocery store, but that's it.
It all came together very nicely on Tuesday afternoon.
Here's how it went down...
#1. Invite over some pretzel makers.
We had a total of 8 kids. Ebby had a friend over from the night before, our 2 neighbors, my 3 kids and my pal Marianne from NY was in town and she was able to come by with her two daughters, Abigail and Isabelle. I love when things work out like that.
#2. Make some decorations.
This was pretty funny. About an hour before party time, Ebby and Danielle whipped up a couple of signs and some name tags.
#3 Set up the supplies.
I dug out my stash of aprons and rustled up enough for all of the
female chefs. As I suspected, the boys weren't really interested in
wearing aprons .
I also spent some time surfing the net to find a good pretzel recipe--because the 2 kids cookbooks that I have that I know have pretzel recipes were nowhere to be found. After settling on a recipe, I gathered the ingredients, mixing bowls, utensils, baking sheets and individual work mats, a.k.a. plastic laminated placemats
#4. Let the party begin with some dancing.
#5. After all of the guest arrive, start making pretzels!
One thing I found out: during a pretzel making party is not the best time to run out of flour. I had just about enough for the 2 batches of dough that we made (one for the girls, one for the boys), but not a lot of extra flour for sticky hands...The kids had a great time and made some really cool shapes. I was very impressed with their creativity and dexterity--Abigail is quite the pretzel dough braider!
#6. Be impressed with all the pretzel shapes
#7. Boil the uncooked pretzel dough. This is an optional step but I highly recommend it. Supposedly it helps with the texture of the pretzels after baking when you boil them first. Mostly though it was just fun to watch the shapes rise up in the boiling water as they cooked : )
#8 Bake up your creations. We had cinnamon sugar and sea salt to use as toppers. We did brush the tops of the pretzels with an egg wash before adding the toppings.
#9. Admire and ENJOY!
