Lenten Pretzels

Therese, Fulton and I made pretzels this afternoon. It turned out better than last week’s (which is why I didn’t post last weeks) despite a few mishaps like halving the recipe wrong and spilling the flour.  But God is good and it was hard to even botch this up.

I got this recipe from my favorite holy-day cook book called The Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz. They have a ton of great recipes for the entire liturgical year including the feast days of some popular Saints.This is what it had to say about the pretzel:

The pretzel is a very ancient bakery item, which traditionally was eaten only during Lent. It appreared each year on Ash Wednesday and disappreared on Good Friday. It goes back at least to the fifth century: there is a Roman manuscript in the Vatican Library dating from that period which shows a Lenten pretzel. As to the shape: it is made in the form of two arms crossed in prayer. The word bracellae, “little arms,” became in German Bretzel, then Pretzel. These early Christians ate no dairy products in Lent, so the pretzel was made only of flour, salt, and water: it was as simple as it could be.

Ingredients:

• 1 T. honey or sugar
• 1-1/2 cups lukewarm water (100-100 degrees F)
• 1 envelope active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups flour
• Coarse or kosher salt
• 1 egg, beaten

Add the honey to the waterl; sprinkle in the yeast and stir until dissolved. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Blend in the flour and knead the dough until smooth.

Cut the dough into pieces. Roll them into ropes and twist into pretzel shapes. You can make small pretzels with thin ropes, or large ones with fat ropes, but remember that to cook at the same rate, your pretzels need to be all the same size.

Place the pretzels on lightly greased cookie sheets. Brush them with beaten egg. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake 425 degrees F for 12-15 mintutes, until pretzels are golden brown.

It was a big hit with Therese!