Pretzel Bread for Lent

I thought I'd try my hand at making homemade soft pretzels to take the place of bread or rolls for our meals during Lent.  You might have heard that the pretzel was originally created by Catholic monks in the 7th century and there is Christian symbolism baked into its design.  For example, the dough was shaped to mimic arms crossed in prayer.  (For further details on the history of the pretzel, you can click on this link.)

Last year, my daughter-in-law made soft pretzels for Lent, and I knew she'd posted a recipe for them on her blog.  Just as I was about to search her archives, I switched gears and decided that I would try to make pretzel rolls or pretzel bread instead.  When I've accompanied my pilot husband on several of his working trips to Europe, I was served warm pretzel rolls with my dinner up in business class (la-di-da, I know), and I don't believe I've ever had any carbohydrate so good-tasting in my whole life (and I've eaten more than my fair share of carbs, believe you me).  So last week, with this great idea of trying to recreate the rolls my husband's airline serves in mind, I went on-line, typed in "pretzel bread recipes," and found this one:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pretzel-bread

The process of creating this delightful pretzel bread is a little bit labor-intensive; but if you like to bake as much as I do, and you like a bit of a challenge now and again, I highly recommend that you try it.  Even though I was pretty sure my PB wasn't going to turn out right at all (the dough didn't rise nearly as much as I thought it would), I had success with this recipe on my very first try.

TA-DA!

My loaves didn't come out perfectly round and pretty; but they more than made up for it by tasting better than any homemade bread I'd ever attempted to make before.  Pretzel bread is so unbelievably good!  It truly tastes like a soft pretzel--salty and chewy on the outside, dense on the inside--and if you add butter, it's simply nirvana.

Bon appetit!