Pretzels

Back in October my mom and I went about making some pretzels. We had made pretzels a long time ago and I remembered them tasting delicious.  I went online to www.tastykitchen.com to try and find a pretzel recipe that sounded good.  Pretzels are a pretty basic recipe so I found a pretty simple recipe. Sweet Basil on tasty kitchen has a really good recipe.  We sprinkled half of them with salt and the other half with cinnamon sugar.  They were both equally delicious. 

Ingredients

·        4-½ Tablespoons Yeast

·        3 cups Warm Water

·        2 Tablespoons Sugar

·        6 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

·        2-½ teaspoons Salt

·        8 cups Flour

·        2 Tablespoons Baking Soda

·        2 cups Water

·        ¼ cups Margarine, To Brush On Pretzels

Preparation Instructions

Dissolve the yeast in the 3 cups warm water. Combine the sugars, salt, and flour into a mixer. Add the yeast mixture and mix on high speed for 8 minutes.

Put dough in a greased bowl and let rise 1 hour. Roll into 12-16 ropes about 18 inches long. Let rise 15 minutes.

Roll ropes again till about 24 inches long. Twist into pretzels. Dip in a mixture of the baking soda and 2 cups of water. Put on a greased cookie sheet, or parchment sprinkled with flour works best. Let sit 10-15 minutes.

Bake at 450F for 8 minutes. Brush lightly with melted margarine and sprinkle with coarse salt, sea salt, Parmesan cheese or cinnamon and sugar.

Note: for cinnamon crunch pretzels, just add an equal portion of brown sugar to the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.

Easy Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Last year a friend from work made the most delicious Pumpkin Spice cookies for my birthday.  I have never been a huge fan of pumpkin but there isn't an overwhelming taste of pumpkin in these cookies.  She mentioned the Pumpkin Spice cookies last night at work and I just had to share the recipe.  I hope you enjoy them.

I found a similar recipe on food.com

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-pumpkin-spice-cookies-cake-mix-147653

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce) box spice cake mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can solid-pack pumpkin (the small can)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) or 1 cup chopped pecans (optional) or1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1 cup cream cheese frosting (optional)

Directions:

1. 
   

   1. 1
      Preheat oven to 350°F.
   2. 2
      Spray cookie sheets lightly with vegetable spray (Pam).
   3. 3
      In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix and pumpkin with a fork or mixer until well blended; stir in nuts or raisins, if desired.
   4. 4
      Drop by large rounded spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet; they don't flatten out much so however you place them on the sheet is pretty much how they'll look after baking.
   5. 5
      Bake for 8 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.
   6. 6
      Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for up to 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
   7. 7
      Frost, if desired.
   8. 8
      How many cookies you get depends on how large you make them of course - just increase your baking time if making larger cookies (it's truly difficult to burn these, but they will get crispier & less moist); Mine, made with a medium size cookie scoop, take 13-15 minutes to bake and yield about 3 dozen.