Twisted Pretzel

Things have been really busy in our kitchens and I haven't had much time to get things posted.  Students kept feeding their starters and began having an abundance of discards.  So it was time to cut the waste and put together something tasty! And what is better than soft pretzels!

This was the first complicated recipe that they had to follow. To save space, they had combined their starters into large jars, one per kitchen with six total.  Once they had enough discards, we were ready to start. At this point, we had put the starters in the fridge to slow the growth process of the starters. 

Before school, several students come in to prep the kitchens. They gather the necessary ingredients for the recipes and portion them out into six bins, one for each team. In addition, they gather the equipment that each kitchen will need to complete the recipe.  On the first day we made our dough. Because we only have about 40 minutes in the kitchen to get things done, we have to break the recipe up over several days.  This is great when dealing with recipes that need to rise because it breaks the procedure into natural steps. 

Students measured their starter discards and then began to add the remaining ingredients, mixing until they formed a good ball of dough.  We placed the dough into separate bowls and left them to rise. At the end of the day, seventh period was sure to place all the dough into the fridge for the night.
The following day the dough was ready to make into pretzels.  Students enjoyed rolling out the dough, some more successful than others.  It took several tries and a bit of extra flour, but they each eventually accomplished the task.

We stacked their pretzels and froze them for the following day.  This kept some of them from getting smashed and stopped them from a second rise.  The next day, they baked them and enjoyed them with while watching some Good Eats with Alton Brown!  Unfortunately, I often get too busy in the classroom to remember to snap some pictures.  And these pretzels got eaten faster then I anticipated!  Interestingly enough, we coated the warm pretzel in butter, but instead of salt, cinnamon sugar was the popular choice of coating. 
These kids are amazing and learning more everyday. I love my job and teaching these kids how great cooking from scratch can be.
Here's to healthier families! Cheers!