Big Baked Pretzels!

Right before Easter we tried out the pretzel recipe that I found HERE.
Infarrantly Creative is an amazing blog, by the way, in case you have never been there. She does
A-MAZING furniture re-do's, and room decor, and recipes...and she can work those power tools!
Anyway.....
I saw these pretzels and thought my kiddos would love to help with them!

I know, YUMMY, right?????
Here is the recipe that she used at Infarrantly Creative...
*1 cup+2 TBS water
*3 cups all-purpose flour (I used half all-purpose, and half wheat flour with great results!)
*3 TBS brown sugar (I used dark)
*1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
******************************
Later.....BOIL(after the pretzels are made and being formed...)
*8 cups water
*1/2 cup baking soda

Super simple!

Little, and Middle helped me put together all of the ingredients in the bread machine. Then we set the cycle to "DOUGH"

I am sure that you could make this WITHOUT a bread machine....I would imagine that you would need to mix it well...and then knead it for a bit, then let it rise for at least an hour covered in a warm room.

When the dough cycle was done, I punched it down and kneaded it into a nice round ball.
I used a dough cutter and cut it in half, and then each half in half...I rolled those GENTLY into nice balls.
I gave each child their own ball of dough, and they went to town.

The older two, were great...
Middle made a balloon, and baseball bat, a rainbow, a soccer ball, a "T" and a pretzel (go figure) :)

Teen even enjoyed herslef...
She made a sunshine, a pretzel, a "K", a "B" and a ball

Little LOVED it, but needed some help...she kept playing and re-forming...like it was playdoh. :)
In the end, she made a heart, a snake, an "M" and a pretzel.

For the record, the dough really doesn't look that appetizing raw.

While the kids are forming, you need to boil the 8 cups of water, and 1/2 cup baking soda together. I forgot to take a picture of this step.
Once boiling, drop in, one by one, the created masterpieces for 10 seconds each!
Drain on paper towels.
Then put them on baking sheets and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes...
When they are nice and deliciously carmel brown they are done.

Seriously.....??????? Are you drooling??????

They were really good! With a hint of a background sweetness!
YUMMY!

We will definately be making these again.....
Look how cute if you had guests over or something.....

*****One hint....In MY opinion....these are REALLY good, the first night...and OK the next day. The kids didn't mind, and they kept eating them and eating them, however...

Raelyn