Pretzels!

I started this blog on the advice of my Mother in law. I started baking after I had my first little and spent a year at home with her. So I baked.  And cooked.  Not sure why she suggested it but I am glad she did.  I also LOVE to write so it was a beautiful marriage.  Check out my other blog page, This is Life for my other stuff.

Time to discuss these pretzels.  A few weeks ago my girls' God-mother gifted a baking set for kids.  My little baker loved it of course! In it was a cookie cutter for a pretzel and that's how this craving began.  Auntie Anne's Pretzels are a must have whenever I visit the mall.  The cinnamon sugar bite size pretzels take the win!  I remember working at Payless in the Coral Square Mall, (first job) and sneaking in pretzel bites in my apron so I could snack on the job. 💁 Hey, it was my motivation some days and they are irresistible. 😊  I made them a few weeks ago but my yeast was flat and I misread or read confusing directions about the baking soda bath.  (That will make sense once you read the directions.)

Here is the recipe I followed yesterday that worked...with non-confusing directions. lol

Sally's Baking Addiction
While this is supposed to be a quick recipe, I decided to take my time.  And I suggest taking a bit more time after shaping your pretzel.  It's all about the yeast.  You want to give it time to rise in warm water by itself and then after you have made your dough, let it rest again.  It makes for softer, lighter pretzels.  I was so pleased with this batch.  They don't look magnificent but they were a hit!

This picture is after I brushed them with butter and rained cinnamon sugar all over them.  Yes, I got carried away a bit but they were tasty!
Looking forward to making these again soon.

Try something new.  It's easier than you think!

Watercolor Icing

Happy New Year! Welcome to the year of perfect vision. 👀
I am grateful for another year.  My hope for this year is to complete a few of my goals and to keep them alive well into the next decade.  Stay tuned!

Now let's start on these beautiful accidents.
The last Sunday in 2019, my husband and I dedicated our girls.  A Dedication is a Christian tradition where parents give their children back to God.  Naturally I wanted to bake so I made Sugar Cookies and used angel and heart cookie cutters.
I was determined to keep it simple and just do a plain white icing but the artist in me would not oblige.  The dilemma was getting some of the icing I made out of the piping bag to color it.  That idea did not sound fun so I thought of dropping food coloring onto the plain frosted cookie.  Not a good idea.  The food coloring just came out the other side of the cookie with a color stain in the middle.  I had a few other thoughts then came up with using a short skewer dipped in food coloring to paint the icing.  That worked!!!  And it was beautiful. 😍. They looked like watercolor paintings.

Here are the tools I used: 

1. 1 flat plate
2. 1 dot of color (per color) 
3. toothpick or skewer (thin wooden stick with a point).