100% Whole Wheat Pretzels (and St. Joseph!)

A couple weeks ago, before we went on our trip to Illinois, we made a different pretzel recipe, one for 100% whole wheat pretzels from the La Leche League Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook. It was much easier to roll out into ropes than the King Arthur recipe (and tasted almost as good), and so the pretzel-making was more kid-friendly, and the pretzels actually looked like pretzels are supposed to look... and they are even a bit healthier due to more whole wheat flour!

I couldn't resist posting the photo above because of the look on Cecilia's face!

Whole Grain Soft Pretzels

from Whole Foods for the Whole Family

1 T yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 T honey

1 tsp salt

3 T oil

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 egg beaten w/ 1 T water for glaze

Dissolve yeast in water with honey in a bowl until bubbly. Stir in salt and oil and 2 cups of flour. Beat until smooth, then add wheat germ and remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic. let rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled. Punch down and divide into 16 equal pieces. Roll into 16-inch long ropes and form into pretzel shapes (or whatever shape you wish, as we did!). Place pretzels on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise 20 minutes, then lower them gently into a pot of boiling water and baking soda (8 cups water and 2 T baking soda) and allow to boil about a minute, 3 pretzels at a time, if you want them to have the characteristic chewy texture. Otherwise, just bake them without boiling. Brush the glaze onto each pretzel and sprinkle with coarse salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, whatever. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

The much more discernible pretzel shape, unlike our last batch.

Caroline made some pretzel dough into "snakes" and said they were for St. Patrick, since is said to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland! So I followed her theme and made a bishop's crozier to honor St. Patrick as well.

Then Caroline made this cross pretzel. She was excited to make different meaningful shapes.

Mmmm, fresh out of the oven!

And the last photo I have to share is from St. Joseph's feast day last Friday: we made the mini St. Joseph's altar found here. It was fun and cute - Caroline enjoyed it a lot! It made a nice centerpiece along with the daffodils that finally bloomed in our yard and the new St. Joseph holy card given to us by our priest at our church's weekly dinner before Stations of the Cross:

I can't believe Lent is almost over! Time to start planning for Holy Week and Easter! maybe we'll get in one more batch of pretzels, too! ;)