Stuffed Pretzels

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble allocating their car keys in a purse, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my cute left toe that everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.2 seconds, eyes closed, first time. every time. Pretty sure Ace can. As we rushed out the door and grabbed a whole grain stuffed pretzel to give to my kiddos on the way to school I marveled at my accuracy in locating them as well.

A few weeks ago I went to my local grocery super center looking for some ideas of things to put in lunch boxes and one that totally stuck in my head was stuffed pretzels. They are twisted and nice. Like me. However, I have to say that the ones in the freezer case where loaded to the hilt with chemicals and junk and my head started spinning when I registered the price for them. Really. I am really going to pay to put that crap in my kids mouths? Or mine for that matter. So today I thought we would do the unthinkable...and make our own. Wait. I guess it's not unthinkable because we do it all the time. I have in fact featured pretzels before. So, mind you if you just click on the word "pretzels" there is a full tutorial on how to make soft whole grain vegan pretzels from scratch. Just another part of my plot to get you sucked into my blog. You might like it and stay. OH please....please stay. Do you all remember the Stuffed Breadsticks from yesterday? Perhaps this will refresh your memory? You can use the basic bread recipes for the dough. A full batch will yield about 24 nice fluffy pretzels. Or use a half batch for these and half for stuffed bread sticks or a loaf of bread too. Really whatever you want.

Imagine cream cheese in there with some dabs of jam. Imagine cream cheese in there with some chopped jalapeno or dabs of D Dog BBQ rubs and sauce (I will be getting a bottle of the new cranberry chipotle sauce and making these with that inside...Thank you Evil D.) Today for the kiddos, we made them stuffed with peanut butter and the anti-Tara raisins of love and happiness. She can use chocolate chips. So can you (if you don't like raisins...I shudder at the thought).
So, here's what the filling looked like. I just left a little space at the end so it would seal nicely and did the 6 strips like we did with the Stuffed Breadsticks . Each strip will make 2 pretzels. Once the dough is sealed around the filling, you will need to cut the strip in half. Then roll it out like a snake (pretzels ...come on...give in to your feelings. Check out the post.)

Follow the instructions for raising and baking. Though for the sweet ones I misted them with water and added some sugar in the raw and some tiny niblets of chocolate. Lightly and elegantly dusted with powdered sugar and wa-laaa. Feel free to make a million of them. They're freaky "de-lucious".

There you go. Breakfast or lunch on the go in a gorgeous self contained package of joy. Life is cool.