Why do Pretzels have knots?

How did the pretzel get its shape?

Some of the children thought, they just came like that. It's a heart. It's dough that the baker put like that. It's a face. It looks like bunny ears.

All great answers!!

So we dug a little further and found out.

Here are some of the points we talked about

• pretzels are made from dough. They are hard and soft.
• pretzels look like they have a knot in the middle, or arms crossing
• a long time ago a priest taught the children their prayers. He made pretzels for the children as a reward.
• the priest made the dough into a knot, because it reminded him of the praying children.
• in our Catholic church, pretzels were made of flour and water and could be eaten during Lent.
• children used to hunt for pretzels on Easter like the children today hunt for Easter eggs.

Our first dough ball-after we had a talk with the yeast to please work for Mrs. Long

Our first pretzel-looks pretty good

"We criss cross our pretzel like this.
It smells like beer!! "(lol)

"It's hard to roll. It's easier in my hands."

"Can I pinch it to make it stick together?"

"It smells like my nonna's bread."

A few classes joined in on our inquiry.
We did this baking for 3 days with Mrs. Iatridis/Mrs. MacDonald class.
Some others from the other classes made their way over too. It's great to share in the learning.

The children took turns measuring and stirring.

"it feels yucky"

"we're cleaning up the mess"

After we found out the information, we needed to try to make these pretzels ourselves. It was our reward for learning our Jelly Bean Prayer and learning the story of Easter.

Heres how we made them:

1 tbsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 tsp. honey

1-1/3 c flour

1 tsp. salt

oven

small bowl

mixing spoons

medium bowl

cutting board, sprinkle with flour

baking sheet, spray with non-stick spray

measuring cups and spoons

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Put the yeast in a small bowl with the water and honey. Stir a little, then let the mixture sit for 5 minutes

Mix the flour and salt together in a medium bowl

After the 5 minutes is up, check the yeast mixture. It should be bigger than before and a little bubbly. Add this mixture to the flour and salt mixture

Stir everything together. Use a spoon to start. Finish with your hands. The dough is ready when it's still a little crumbly and flaky.

Put the dough on the cutting board and knead italic you are playing with clay. Knead it into one big ball.

Break off a piece of dough that's about the size of a gumball. Use your hands to roll into a skinny snake

Twist the snake into a medium size pretzel shape, and put it on the cookie sheet. Do this with all the dough, making 12 pretzels

We also did an egg wash and coarse salt to try different things.