Lazy-Day pretzels for lunch!

There’s really no way to make a picture of pretzels with a goober of mustard look appetizing, is there…well, maybe a professional food photographer could do it, but I sure can’t.

I decided to make soft pretzels for Elisheva because she loves them and she’s in the middle of exam week (actually, sort of still near the beginning – Exam 3 of 10, I believe).  I thought they’d be super-nice to come home to, because the big kids are always hungry when they walk through the door (in an inward direction).

It’s a pretty basic, yeast-based, white-flour-based, web-based, hundreds-of-happy-reviews recipe, that also happens to be pareve and as a bonus doesn’t need kneading (though it’s thicker than most no-knead dough).

After I’d been working on them all morning, and the scent of fresh-baked pretzels was filling the house, I promised Naomi she could have them at snacktime.  Well, she started crying – she wanted one NOW, for lunch.

And I thought, hmm… and said yes.  Because, really, on a plate with a slice of cheese and vegetable, they’re probably not much worse than a grilled cheese sandwich, or the tuna ice-cream cones I was thinking of serving.

 

Indeed, I have even used this recipe to make homemade “bagels,” and even with the quick rise, the dipping step gives them some degree of sheen and chewy authenticity (I wouldn’t trust them for staying fresh after a few hours, but I find that fresh bagels don’t stick around that long anyway with two starch-hangry teenagers).

Hangry?  What’s hangry?  It’s the kind of grrrr-RAGE you start to feel when you are hungry deep down inside but don’t quite realize it so you just take everything out on everyone around you.  Hangry: a first world problem for sure.