Pretzels!

Today we made pretzels as we continue to learn about Germany.  One of the things I remember about my trip to Switzerland is the soft pretzels.  They are huge, crispy brown shell, soft in the middle, and melt in your mouth delicious.  So I thought we would make our own, knowing they won’t be anything like they are in Europe, but still a fun experience to learn more. 

We started with yeast and discussed how yeast makes bread rise and it becomes bigger.  We also worked more on our measuring and fractions while pouring ingredients into the bowl.  After the dough was formed we took turns trying to knead the dough.  After that, we placed the ball of dough in a bowl and waited one hour.  When we checked back an hour later the ball of dough was bigger.  So we talked more about yeast and its magic powers.  We were all excited to roll out dough to form our pretzels.  I took a piece of dough to demonstrate what they needed to do and had a big disappointment.  The dough wouldn’t roll.  I have never made pretzels before so I didn’t know what to do so I gave each of the kids some dough and told them to make whatever shape they could.  They had fun experimenting with the dough to see what shape they could create.  While we were rolling out dough we worked on counting, L keeps missing the number four.  Also, we worked on fractions; W cut some of his dough into bite size pieces so he cut his dough into fourths or thirds.  I also, added some conservation and we discussed thick and thin, length, small, medium, and large.  Next we needed to brush egg over the pretzels and sprinkle salt on them.  While doing this we reviewed some German words and tried to count a little in German.  (I need my mother-in-law)  By the time the children had their lunch made the pretzels were out of the oven and cooling.  We all took a pretzel and tasted them.  The crispy outside with the soft middle was delicious.  Not even comparable with European pretzels but still quite delicious.  All the kids agreed they like them and would make them again.  (Which if I have time of Saturday I will be trying another recipe to compare pretzels.)  There was a lot of learning going on today with the pretzels which made it even more fun and fascinating to me. 



Kneading dough



 



Rolling dough



Shapes, letters - r, o.

Enjoying their soft pretzels!

 I love this project and I am thinking of ways to continue it with my own children as well with the community. I thought about creating a class with Parks and Recreation to give children the opportunity to cook.  I didn’t participate in the kitchen when I was growing up and when I got married and needed to make dinner I was unsure of how to cook chicken.  My husband would cook the meat and I would make the sides.  Now I am feeling more confident and having more fun with cooking.  I feel it is important to include children in the cooking process to build an academic foundation that will help them in school as well as later on in their life.  I wonder if people participate in cooking as children do they feel more confident cooking as adults? Do they enjoy it more? Are they more creative with their cooking?  Even if adults don’t feel confident cooking they should still involve their children to create memories, bond, and learn together.  It is surprising what you are capable of if you just give yourself a chance.  Who knew my kids would ever learn German while making a cake and pretzels!