Making Pretzels with Kauffman's Fruit Farm

Disclosure: This featured post originally appeared on The Lieber Family. This blogger has partnered with Kauffman’s Fruit Farm to review and post about products that they receive for free.

"Mommy! Your apples are here!" That's a great way to be greeted when you get home from work, right? I love that my kids are so excited to get a box of fruit in the mail. My kids actually got mad at me because I made them eat the grocery store apples before we dove into the Kauffman's box, because I try to stick with a "first in, first out" plan for food management in our house. I've been partnered with Kauffman's Fruit Farm in Pennsylvania to help them celebrate their 100th anniversary and get the word out about their awesome offerings. And this month I learned that not only do they have amazing fruit, but they have a lot of other great offerings too!

This month's box (similar to this one) contained 8 Gorgeous Gala apples, an 8 oz bag of apple schnitz, Shoofly pie mix and a soft pretzel mix. I was super excited about the pretzels because we love pretzels, and I've always wanted to make my own. The package contains the pretzel mix, yeast packet, and salt. All you need to provide is warm water and baking soda (for better browning)

Pour the mix into a bowl then add the yeast packet and warm water. Mix until everything is wet and then knead it for about 3-4 minutes. Place the prepared dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set it in a warm location for about an hour to let it rise. After the dough has risen, turn it out on a greased counter top and divide it into 8-10 pieces. Roll each piece into a 24" cord. Flippity do dah it into a pretzel shape and then dip it in a mixture of 3TBSP baking soda and 2 cups of warm water. This will help it to brown nicely when it bakes. Place it on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 500 degrees for 8 minutes. Try not to eat them all as soon as they come out of the oven! I made the dough before dinner and let it rise while we ate. After dinner, while the kids were getting on pajamas, I rolled the dough out into long snakes (all those years of Play-doh playing have finally come in useful!) and formed the pretzels. I wanted to make a special surprise for the kids, so I made each of their initials out of pretzels dough. They were done getting ready for bed around the time I pulled them out of the oven. 

They LOVED their initial pretzels! And they were so delicious. I may have eaten more than one after they went to bed. This is definitely something I will be purchasing again, and next time I'll let them be more involved since I know what I'm doing now! If you're looking for fresh fruit, fruit products, or Dutch Country treats, you can't go wrong with Kauffman's Fruit Farm!