Pretzels are an obsession with our family. Soft pretzels are nirvana. Every trip to Target means a visit to their little "market" for a soft pretzel and cheese. Every visit to the mall means two little voices begging me for a pretzel. And it's not just the kids that beg. My stomach chimes in with long, sonorous peals for pretzels. And, we're connoisseurs of pretzels. We can taste the difference between Auntie Anne's, Wetzel Pretzel and the "junk" one's that you can buy at the ice cream shop.
Since we are now officially poor college students it has meant that we've had to forgo this luxury and boy has it hit the girls hard. My children won't have problems obsessing over sweets, just over pretzels with cheese. I've been making all of my bread at home, but I've been avoiding the whole pretzel thing. I have a mental block about making pretzels at home because of the one time my mom tried to rise to the occasion, and we ended up with hard, break-your-tooth-on-me, pasty tasting pretzels. Last night my withdrawal symptoms were just too overwhelming. I looked up a recipe for pretzels. Not just any recipe would do. I spent an hour searching and comparing the different recipes until I found one that I thought might create a pretzel worthy of Auntie Anne's.
This morning I made a quick batch and let it rise. It was done just in time for lunch. I made 9 soft, warm, chewy, sweet-tasting pretzels. AND they tasted just like Auntie Anne's. The girls were delighted that they didn't have to share a pretzel. They were ecstatic when they realized that they got to have seconds. Katie's eyes almost popped out of her head when I told her I had one left if she wanted it.
So, now, I'm thinking...what should I try next?
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