Age group(s) for this recipe:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School
Middle School
High School & Beyond

Estimated time:
approx. 2 hours; more if you use a bread machine (but the time can be well spent!)

Directions:
Look in the "Family Recipes" area of What Works, under "Breads," for 'Soft Pretzels.'

Other suggestions and comments:
I had trouble deciding which category to place it in, and chose Family Recipes. However, it is a great recipe to use with groups of children.

Other pretzel recipes out there call for dipping the shaped pretzel in boiling hot soda water, and then brushing with beaten egg before baking. Those extra steps take valuable time, and in my experience with it (as both cook and observer), it's too easy to get a bit too much egg on the pretzels, which puddles a bit and scorches on the cookie sheet (not a flavor bonus). While Process often matters more than Product, isn't it nice for both goals to be satisfied?

Each child will want to receive the same Work of Art pretzel he/she created. If your cookie sheets are lined with aluminum foil (shiny side down) each child's name or initials can be lightly 'etched' into the foil...and the cookie sheet could be re-covered and used quickly again without the bother of scrubbing between batches. Do remember to grease the aluminum foil, though!

You might also cut Individual pieces of foil for each child, as part of setting up your Work Stations.

The smallest children will tend to just enjoy rolling and re-rolling their dough, which keeps 'em busy and out of trouble while you work with the older ones. Then older ones can help younger ones.

Count on needing 2 cookie sheets, unless you are blessed with industrial-sized equipment. You can also call pizza pans into service.

Preparing the dough by hand is certainly alright; it's just rather labor-intensive! If your block of time is adequate, Teach the kids how, and then Step Back and let youthful hand and wrist action carry out the task ;-)

The dough I made in my bread machine was awesome in ease of handling! Well worth the hour and a half the dough cycle involves; one can work around that and do other tasks in the interval.

Different machines have different bread pan Capacity, and not all should be loaded the same way (when to put add wet/dry ingredients). Length of cycle also varies. Making note of these details (from the owner's manual) will help in the planning process for a Large Group activity, especially if using more than one unit.

Between pizza dough and pretzels, a bread machine could pay for itself in a big hurry!
What's the going rate for a pretzel and a drink apiece at the Mall, for a family of 4? It's serious money!

A stand mixer with a dough hook (and a couple of Friends to load it up with ingredients!) is another way to prepare dough in advance, for a Large Group activity. Unlike a bread machine, the mixer can be "loaded, and re-loaded" to produce more dough.

Different kitchens, different groups, altered process.

Have fun with this!