Lenten Pretzels

Making Lenten Pretzels with Mommy and Daddy!

The Sunday School at my church makes Lenten Pretzels every year at some point during lent.

This year since Emily is old enough to enjoy watching and helping with some baking and she loves playing with play-doh, I decided that each week during Lent we will try a different pretzel recipe. Today, because of the snow Daddy was able to help us with these!

Emily watching the mixer knead the pretzel dough

Emily working on her first pretzel

Emily and Mommy

Daddy working on the perfect pretzel


The story behind the Lenten Pretzel

Many years ago, an Italian monk made a simple bread as a reminder that Lent was a time of prayer. He rolled the bread dough in strips and shaped them in the form of arms crossed over the heart in a prayerful gesture.

The recipe we used for today's pretzels:

SOFT LENTEN PRETZELS

Serves: 8-12

• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 dash of salt
• 1 1/2 cups 110 degree water
• 1 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup warm water
• melted butter and toppings

1. Combine the yeast, sugar, salt and 1 1/2 cups 110 degree water. Allow to rest for 5 minutes
2. Stir flour into mixture and knead for 5 minutes (I used the dough hook and my stand mixer)
3. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour ( I turned the oven on the lowest it could go about 170 degrees)
4. Divide dough into 8-12 equal pieces, roll each piece into a rope and shape each rope into a pretzel.
5. In a shallow dish, stir baking soda into 1/4 warm water; dip pretzels into mixture; lay coated pretzel on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake in a 550 degree oven for 5-8 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Brush with melted butter

**For toppings we sprinkled some with Kosher salt and the others with cinnamon sugar**

Lenten Countdown ~ Lamb of God

Emily's Easter Countdown

Emily loved using an Advent calender to count down the days till Christmas, so for Easter I wanted to do something similar. I was so excited when I found this great idea for making a "Lamb of God" and adding a cotton ball for each day of Lent on Karen Edmisten’s blog (http://www.karenedmisten.blogspot.com/).

To make ours I used a heavy piece of paper and drew a lamb.

Next, I took 46 cotton balls and placed them over the drawing. This helped me number where the cotton balls would be placed each day, I also liked having the numbers so that I could point them out each day as we are counting, since Emily has been into numbers recently. I added two googly eyes because I had them around and thought they looked cute :0)

Finally, Emily will add a cotton ball for each day of Lent starting on Ash Wednesday all the way till Easter.

*There are 40 days in lent because Sundays are not counted, however for this countdown I included them.