Week 20: Pretzel Sticks, walk through Musselburgh and exercising!!

This was not a planned bake!! I had just decided that the whole day I was going to spend not doing work, just because I could ;) Jennifer was home in Dumfries, so it was Morven (my friend from church) and I who would be baking today. 

Walk in Musselburgh with Morven. It was quite a warm day, so that made it even more worth going for a walk!! Here I am with my Tearfund T-shirt. 

Feeding of the swans

We then came back to our flats, and I made the pretzel stick's dough. I was then going to meet Morven to do exercising. That day we were going to be doing a '1000 squat challenge', so I was not sure whether I was sad about doing so many squats, or excited about doing it with Morven ;)

The table laden and ready to make the dough.  

The milk and butter preparing to sizzle away

The flour, yeast and salt having a party in the mixing bowl. Ready for the water to turn up that dancing!!

And the water is added!! 

After kneading, the dough is looking very prim <3  

Letting the dough rise in the oven (the temperature was not on) 

Now I went to go and get changed for the '1000 squat challenge'.

Our view while exercising <3 The scenery is so beautiful :D

Doing one of the ten variants of a squat. I was pretending that I was a swan, because I was looking out over the pond, where the swans were elegantly swimming and flying back and forth from the lake. 

Our fitness instructor on my laptop is here telling us to keep going when the pain kicks in!! :D 

The final exercise before heading in to make the pretzel sticks. 

Putting the doughy pretzel sticks into the simmering water and baking soda. This is so that the develop a skin before they go into the oven. 

The pretzel sticks before the oven. They look quite weird here, like little worms.

The pretzel sticks in the oven, getting their sun tan on :D

Out of the oven!!

Making the caramel for the caramel and gingerbread dip.

Checking the temperature. It was supposed to get to 165C before taking the pan off the hob, but it was starting to crystallise!! AHH!!

Slowmotion bubbling ;)

The final product with the caramel and gingerbread dip in a mug ;)

The pretzel sticks tasted amazing, but unfortunately the dip kept clumping up, and so we had to keep microwaving it so that it was liquidy.

Tearfund has posted about the difficulties of living in Honduras. On average there are 20 murders a day. Because of Tearfund we can start making a difference to the people who live there simply by donating money and praying for justice. Here is an excerpt from their website:

Angela is from San Pedro Sula, where the slum she calls home is perched precariously along a riverbank running through the centre of the city. Every day is a struggle for families in this community to find the work needed to survive. It is hard to imagine how their children can forge a better future, with schools out of reach and the constant threat of drug trafficking and gang violence (Tearfund 2017). 

This is where Honduras is in the world

Thank you guys for reading our blog, and thank you helping us fundraiser for Tearfund through your prayers, donations and just being aware of this charities works to bring justice through the name of Jesus to the world!!

Till next time,

The Baking Students xx

Week 11: Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Sticks

This recipe is definitely my favourite in a while :) I was staying at my grandparent's place during my holidays, and thought I would try something really new, so I decided to give this a go ;) It ended up that my mum, grandmother, and I were all working together to get these done. It was such fun!!

So firstly I had to make the dough, and let it rise for two hours.

Here I am in my great grandmother's apron in my grandmother's kitchen about to start folding the dough after letting it rise for two hours :)

Folding the dough

And it was sticking to the table :(

More attempts at folding

More...

Until my grandmother came in and helped me wipe the table with more and more oil ;) (That is what the recipe said to do). This made the dough less sticky and easier to work with.

Cutting up the dough into many little sticks

That is what they are supposed to look like ;) I think ...

I then had to place them for 30 seconds in a pan of simmering water and baking soda

My dad helped out a bit ;) hehe

The interesting technique of putting dough into the water, placing it on paper towelling, and then on a tray for the oven :D  It was very fun!

My grandmother, my mum and I <3 

The Sticks came out looking like little "Tiger Breads" ;)

Pretzel Sticks

Brushing the last lot of Pretzel Sticks with egg before putting them in the oven

You can then choose to either make a dip for the Sticks, or a sugar coating. 

I wanted to make a Caramel Gingerbread Dip, but we went through some difficulties trying to make the caramel...

Two times the caramel crystallised in the pan, and we have no idea why, so after a good sleep (and when my mind was not so annoyed at the sugar and water) I decided upon a Cinnamon Sugar coating ;)

The final product!!

The taste of these cuties was exactly like donuts ;) I would definitely recommend this to everyone!! It really isn't that difficult, it just takes time. 

Till next time,

The Baking Students

xx