I’m about to start baking a doghouse cake (carrot cake with cream cheese icing…which should make decorating all kinds of fun), and make chocolate dog and bone for Igor’s birthday. And like any impossible task, I have to try and get the whole thing done before he gets out of school. I’m apparently quite insane.
We followed a recipe from Alton Brown that we adapted a tiny bit, mostly because I didn’t have pretzel salt on hand. But the recipe was easy enough that Igor got to do a whole lot of the actual recipe. He didn’t get to do the boiling part, and he didn’t get to put the trays in or out of the 450 degree oven, but other than that, he was able to do most of the recipe. He’s turning into quite the little 6 year-old sous chef.
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.
Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined.
Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. 
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces.
Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula.
Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. (I used Kosher salt.)
Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. (I used a convection oven, which turned them a little darker than I would have liked. I think it’s possible that with a convection oven, one could skip the egg wash, or use an egg-white wash instead, and get the color I wanted. I’ll have to try it and find out.)
So, you may have noticed a tiny decrease in content this week. It’s because Igor starts school next week. Were he going into the local school district, he’d be starting kindergarten. He tested in the top 1% to get into the gifted and talented academy, but it’s a long way away, they’re still doing stuff way below his level, it’s a lock-down school because of the neighborhood it’s in, and frankly, he just doesn’t learn well by rote, which is how public school is taught.
So, we’re going to try homeschooling this year and see how it goes. I’ve decided that when it comes to actual book-learning academics, we’re going to pay attention to the school calendar of our local district. That way he starts “school” at the same time as his neighborhood friends. Mind you, I’m pretty sure our school is more fun. Heh.
We’ve broken out some books already, and have started refreshing what we learned before summer.
This year we’ll be doing History of the World – Part One . . . and no, not the Mel Brooks movie
Even though the material is intended for kids about 5 years older than he is, we’ve started reviewing The Complete Book of Maps & Geography. He seems to get the spacial concepts pretty easily, and the book has lots of fun cut/glue type activities, which Igor loves.
We’ll be starting again with First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. We’ve been working on language stuff all summer, so I don’t think we need much review on the topics he seems to know.
We’ve got a couple of math books, but I’m not sure if we’ll pick one, or float between them all. He really digs flashcards too, which is great because I make a game of it, and we can take them almost anywhere.
Science; I don’t even know where to begin – we have so many science books and projects. We’ll be doing at least on project/science experiment each week.
And of course, there will be crafts. There is no avoiding crafts in this house. I’m like a crazy person, I swear I could open a craft store just on the supplies I have around the house. I cannot be trusted in a Hobby Lobby, I tell you what. So I think we’re laid in for supplies. Let the teaching begin!
How will this impact Soapy Hollow? Well…somewhat. I’m scaling back production, so there will be limited quantities of some items. I’m not accepting any new wholesale accounts at the moment. But other than that, I plan to continue tracking various legislation that impacts artisans, news about the industry, chemical updates, product updates, product testing results, development and of course, we’re going to try and have some new instructables up every week or two.
So, stick around, how else will you know when I’m making your favorite?