Better than Auntie Anne's!

Or whatever that pretzel shop is at the mall. I made homemade soft pretzels, and they were gooood!

I feel like all I've been writing about lately is food and new recipes. For some reason, I've been really into baking and cooking lately. I even have 4 new dinner recipes I want to try next week! Don't worry, though, I'm not forgetting about the other stuff on my list, but I just feel like it's not as fun to write about.

But just to let you know...I have completed #36: Apply for Financial Aid for School. I have also completed #48: Buy a new door for our bedroom. And also part of #77: Get my hair highlighted once a year. But what else can I say about those, you know?

Also, I have been taking my multivitamin every day. I still go to the gym at least 3 times a week, but with this running program I've been doing, it's more like 6 days a week. Etc. etc. etc.

So now for something more fun, I made homemade soft pretzels!

Seeeeee.

They're so pretty.

I put sea salt on half of them:

And a cinnamon-sugar mixture on the other half:

I found this recipe online, and realized that I already had all the ingredients at home already! That's always nice. So, I went home and made the dough right away!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

4 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. salt (sea salt preferably)

1 tbsp. yeast-dissolved in water

1 cup water--warm, but not hot

1 tbsp. baking soda mixed with 1 cup of boiling water

1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

Directions:

Mix water, yeast, brown sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add flour until dough is smooth. If the dough is sticky, add more flour.

If you can, let the dough sit overnight in the fridge.

Then, take the dough, and divide it into pieces. I divided mine into 9 pieces, and the pretzels were a good size I though. If you want them bigger, you can divide the dough into less pieces. If you want them smaller, you can divide the dough into more pieces.

Roll each piece into a thing rope. I had trouble with this step, and I felt my ropes weren't too thing, and my pretzels still turned out fine. So, if you're worried your ropes of dough aren't 'thin' enough, don't worry!

Then, shape the dough into an upside-down U shape on your surface, twist the ends and bring them down to the bottom of the pretzel. (Hope that makes sense!)

Place the pretzels on a greased cookie sheet, and let rise for 30 minutes.

Next, either brush each pretzel with the baking soda-water mixture. However, if you want a chewier crust, put 2 tbsp. baking soda in 4 cups of boiling water and drop the pretzel in that mixture for a few seconds and then take it out with a pancake-turner thing with slots in it, so the water can drain out. I did this option, because I wanted chewier crust.

Then, brush each pretzel with the egg-water mixture. This will put a nice shiny glaze on the pretzel.

Sprinkle each pretzel with sea salt, or whatever you want to top them with. (I did half sea salt and half cinnamon-sugar) and bake in the oven at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Or until browned.

And enjoy! Yum!

And because tomorrow is Halloween, I'll leave you with some pictures of the Halloween-shaped shortbread cookies I made last week!