The other day my boys wanted to have pretzels for snack. I've made them before, but I wasn't really wanting to make them that day, so I told them to look up a recipe and try it themselves. The end result was amazing and totally tasty!
My 9 year old really likes to help out in the kitchen, but I was surprised when my 12 year old decided to join him this time as well! They first found a recipe that said it was easy and would take less than an hour.
Next they mixed all the ingredients in the bowl. They tried kneading it there, but it wasn't easy.
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We dumped the dough out on the counter and I showed them how to knead it. They did a great job of adding more flour as needed to keep it from getting sticky. It had to rise for 30 minutes in a warm spot, so we figure out where that could be as well.
While they waited for the dough to rise, they kept track of the time and looked at the recipe some more. They wanted to make sure they followed all the steps exactly.
When it was done rising, they took it out and cut it into 12 pieces. Some of them were a little bigger than the others, so they also got cut in half. It worked out perfectly for our size family. I think pretty much everyone got 2 pretzels!
Time to roll them out and shape them like pretzels! I showed them once or twice how to do it and they were off, looking like pros on their first try!
A 30 second baking soda bath was the next step. They counted for each one. They also applied an egg wash and salt after the pretzels came out of the bath.
The finishing touch for each pretzel was brushing it with butter. This gave it some great flavor and finished it off perfectly!
What they learned from this process is Mom doesn't always have to do all of the cooking! If they want to make something, they're totally capable of following all the steps and making an amazing finished product! I love how they turned out and the confidence they gained. Everyone complimented them and their amazing pretzels!
If your kids need more kitchen skills, check out this page or this post about home economics for guys from Plain and Not So Plain.
There is also this course about home economics and personal skills.
These are both items I plan to integrate into our lessons.