PinkPetunia's House

Oh So Good Soft Pretzels Recipe

I woke up the other day and Rob says to me "have you ever had Aunt Annie's pretzels?" I thought this was a trick question. Who has not had them? Really. Who has not had them because you really should have them. They are that good. Anyhow, it was not a joke. He just really likes soft pretzels and wanted me to make some. He even looked up some recipes for me to look over.

Most of the recipes I came across yielded far too many pretzels. I don't think Rob, Ellie and I need more than a few pretzels, do you?

Oh So Good Soft Pretzels Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup warm (not hot) milk
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose unbleached
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 cup melted butter, optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Grease baking sheet with butter and set aside.
3. Combine milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
4. In mixing bowl, add 2 1/2 cups of flour, and salt.
5. Make a well in the middle of the flour/salt mixture.
6. Pour in milk mixture and mix. If the dough feels wet, add additional flour.
   If using a stand mixer, mix with dough hook for 5 minutes.
   If mixing by hand, mix the dough and then knead for 5 more minutes.
7. On a lightly greased surface, shape the dough into a log.
8. Cut into 6 even pieces.
9. With your hands, roll each piece into a short log-like piece and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
10. Again with your hands, roll each of the 6 pieces into a long thin pieces, about 15 inches.
11. Shape dough strings into pretzels.
    There is a great step-by-step how-to shape pretzels tutorial over on TheKitchn.
12. Fill saucepan with approximately 10 cups of water and 2/3 cup baking soda.
13. Bring to a boil.
14. Gently, lift shaped pretzels and place side-by-side into the boiling water. You may or may not get all of the pretzels in at one time. I did mine one by one just to be safe.
15. Boil for 30 seconds and remove with a large spatula. Allow excess water to drip off.
16. Place boiled pretzels on baking pan.
17. In a small bowl, mix egg yolk and 1/4 cup of water.
18. Brush each pretzel with egg wash.
19. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
20. Bake for approximately 12-14 minutes or until brown.
21. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
22. Brush with melted butter, optional.

Enjoy! We had these with mustard and yum-o-yum!

Kid Friendly Peanut Butter and Jelly Pockets Recipe

What is more kid friendly than a PB and J? Nothing that I can think of but I know a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich can get a bit old. Here is my version of this classic. It is simply peanut butter and jelly between two pieces of dough and then baked. It is wonderful whether you eat it warm or cold but you definately need a tall glass of milk to complete it.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pockets Recipe

 

Ingredients:

rolled out pie crust dough (homemade or store bought)
1/4 cup peanut butter (recipe below or store bought)
2 tablespoons jelly, jam or preserves (I used raspberry)

Directions:

1. Roll out pie crust.
2. Cut out four shapes of your choice. I used 4 inch diameter circles since it was close to sandwich size but you could do bigger or smaller depending on your preference.
    
3. Evenly spread one heaping teaspoon in the middle of each dough shape keeping about 1/2 inch away from the edges.
    
4. Drop one tablespoon of your desired fruit topping into the center of two of the dough shapes but do not spread it around.
   
5. Place peanut butter only dough shapes on top of peanut and fruit topping dough shapes with the fillings together.
6. With a fork, crimp the edges together to seal in the filling.
7. Cut a small hole in the top of dough to allow steam to escape. I did an E on mine for Ellie, of course.
   
8. Bake for approximately 10-13 minutes or until brown.
9. Remove from oven and serve immediately or allow to cool for lunch tomorrow.

Peanut Butter Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups dry roasted unsalted peanuts
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth.
2. For crunchy peanut butter, reserve 1/4 cup of peanuts from step one and add them after the mixture is smooth. Pulse 2-3 times until the newly added nuts are chopped.

Enjoy! I think I will try these again with some crescent dough next time. I love the buttery flakey dough. Yum!

Other kid friendly recipes: fish sticks, tomato soup with cheese toast

Kid Friendly Tomato Soup and Cheese Toast Recipe

Yesterday, I covered a kid and adult friendly fish sticks recipe and today it is another one of Ellie's favorites...notice a pattern forming here? Yeah, all the recipes have to be Ellie approved.

Today, I am making Ellie's favorite soup, tomato. It is another dish she gets at school and is constantly hounding me for. I wanted to make something that did not 'plop' out of a can if you know what I mean. Here is my version of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. And what goes better with tomato than mozzarella cheese and basil? Not much that I can think of so I made some cheese toast to go with the soup. It is a great pairing.

Tomato Soup Recipe

 

Ingredients:

1 onion
2 carrots
2 celery stalk
1 tablespoon olive oil
28 to 29 ounces canned chopped tomatoes (use 2 small or one big, whatever you have on hand)
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Either by hand or food processor, dice onion, carrots and celery.
2. Heat olive oil in sauce pan.
3. Add onion, carrot and celery and cook until soft.
4. Add remanining ingredients and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stir frequently.
    
6. Remove from heat.
7. In a blender, puree all the soup until smooth.


Cheese Toast Recipe

 

Ingredients:

4 slices of french or other crusty bread
softened butter
garlic salt
1/2 shredded mozzarella cheese
dried basil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Lightly butter both sides of the bread and place on baking pan.
3. Sprinkle with garlic salt.
4. Sprinkle cheese on top of bread.
5. Top with basil.
6. Bake until cheese starts to melt.
7. Switch oven to broil and broil until cheese starts to brown.
8. Remove from oven and serve with tomato soup.

Enjoy!

Other kid friendly recipes: fish sticks, peanut butter and jelly pockets.

Kid Friendly Fish Sticks Recipe

I am always looking for recipes that I can make that both Ellie and the grown-ups in the house will want to eat so this week I will posting recipes that are kid friendly but that adults will want to eat too.

First up, fish sticks. Ellie loves them, I hate them. Apparently she gets them at school once every two weeks or so. Now she has taken to asking for them for dinner. I try really hard to not get into the habit of making one dinner for Ellie and one for us. I feel like once I go down that path, it would be too hard to turn back.

I hope you like the upcoming Kid Friendly recipes. I know we do. In fact, Rob liked the fish sticks so much he asked if I would make them again for guests we were having over. What a great compliment.

Fish Sticks Recipe

 

Ingredients:

spray vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 pound white fish fillets, cod or tilapia, cut into "fish-stick-size" strips

1. Heat oven to 450.
2. Spray oil on a rimmed baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
3. Mix bread crumbs, cheese, and seasonings together in a shallow dish until blended.
4. Put flour in another shallow dish.
5. Put eggs in an additional shallow dish.
6. Coat each piece of fish evenly with flour.
7. Dip each floured fish piece in egg.
8. Evenly coat each floured, egged piece in crumb mixture.
9. Place fish sticks onto the baking sheet and spray with vegetable oil.
    
10. If the fish sticks are frozen, allow them to sit on the pan for about 15 minutes to soften up.
11. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes, turning about half way through and lightly spraying top with cooking spray.
12. Serve immediately.

Notes: I cut and coated the fish sticks while still frozen. If you will not be using all of the fish sticks in one sitting, you can freeze them after you bread them. Just place the baking pan in the freezer until the coating is completely frozen. Remove the fish sticks from the pan and place in a freezer safe air tight container until you are ready to use.

Enjoy!

Updated: Kid Friendly Tomato Soup with Cheese Toast Recipes, peanut butter and jelly pockets recipes.

Upcoming: Kid-Friendly Recipes Week

Hey all. I am always looking for kid-friendly recipes and I am pretty sure other parents are in the same boat as me. Next week, I will posting kid-friendly recipes that you can make for your little ones and depending on their age, maybe they can help you out in the kitchen too.

If you have any great kid-friendly recipes, please let me know. I would love to give them a try so share-share-share.