Pumpkin Soft Pretzels

There are a few pumpkin pretzel recipes out there, but I decided before I gave them a try, I might as well see if the Mall Style Pretzel recipe we've been enjoying (click the link to find out about those), could be modified for fall.

Using the original recipe as a guide I added:

1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup water
3 cups flour
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast

to the bread maker, in the order listed above, and ran the machine on the dough setting.

When the dough was ready, the children wanted to try making traditional pretzel shapes, instead of the pretzel bites we usually make. So, we divided the dough into eight balls...


...which we pulled, and rolled into ropes...


...twisted into pretzel shapes...


...and dropped into 2 quarts of boiling water, mixed with 1/2 cup of baking soda.


After about 10 seconds, we (meaning I, because the water was boiling) removed them with a spoon type strainer. Much to my relief, they held their shapes, and were pretty easy to fish out of the water.


We let them dry for a few seconds on plates covered with clean dish towels (or at least, as clean as could be, with flour covering the entire kitchen)...


...before placing them on a greased cookie sheet...


...and popping them into a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.



While they were still hot on the pan, we drizzled them with a thin, powdered sugar glaze (1 cup powdered sugar mixed with 1/2 cup milk)...


...and sprinkled them with nuts, to make them pretty.


The children were put off that we didn't dip the pretzels in butter, and roll them in cinnamon and sugar, because that's the way they've always eaten soft pretzels. The sugar glaze was a bit bland to their taste, though I thought it was quite good, especially once the pretzels had cooled. And, the pretzel texture was excellent, chewy on the outside, and soft on the inside.

The dough was not overly sweet. Actually, I found myself wishing we had salted them, instead of going with a sugar glaze. I'm pretty sure they'd be good that way, especially with the light hint of cinnamon from the pumpkin pie spice in the dough. Really, I'm thinking serving them plain, with a bowl of pumpkin soup, and little salad, could make for a near perfect October lunch.

That's a girl's day lunch, of course, because the Man of the House, and the children would never go for it. Sometimes there's just no accounting for taste.

But, it's great to be a homeschooler.