Germany Style Soft Preztels

Olympics are in full swing and we are loving it! Friday evening we watched the Opening Ceremonies with some good friends. Overall I thought the ceremonies were pretty good. There were a few parts that were a little odd, like the swing dance to celebrate the National Health System, or the dancing through the ages where giant Kiss heads were featured. But overall, it was entertaining.

 

I would like to give the worst dressed award for the Olympic parade of athletes to Germany. There were many crazy outfits throughout the parade, but Germany's just seemed so far off the mark. It didn't fit with their culture or the colors of their flags. I mean, seriously, what's with the bubble gum pink and baby blue jackets?

photo from msnbc.com

Despite the worst-dressed award, I kicked off my Olympic culinary adventure this weekend with German Style soft-pretzels. I have been wanting to make soft pretzels ever since I found this recipe on Pinterest. I actually ended up using a different recipe for the pretzels, but made 3 different kinds, which included the ham and cheese bites. So I think I can count this as both an Olympic post and actually making something off pinterest. Yay!

 

The recipe I used for these pretzels can be found at Kitchen Trial and Error. My pretzels did not stay together well during the boiling step, so I had to reshape them a bit. Also, I really didn't want all big pretzels, so I opted to make about half the dough into pretzel bites. Otherwise, I had no issues following this recipe. The whole process was a bit messy, but overall pretty simple.

Before boiling

 

After boiling, I tried to put them back into pretzel shape

Straight out of the oven!

The beginning of the ham and cheese pretzel bites. The idea was to stuff the bottom third with ham and cheese then roll them closed and cut them into bite size pieces. However, I didn't roll tight enough and they kind of fell apart after cutting. 

They were molded into pretzel "balls" filled with ham and cheese since it was obvious the ham and cheese was not going to stay in them as they were after cutting the long dough. These were delicious!

All 3 Varieties

• Pretzels with salt (in both the twisted shape and pretzel bites)
• Pretzels with cinnamon and sugar
• Pretzel bites stuffed with ham and cheese