My favorite time of the year! Fall and football season! It’s a great time to break out the chili, meatballs, Sunday sauces and other party food recipes. For a Thursday night game or afternoon snack, soft pretzels are quick and easy to put together, fun to do with kiddies and so delicious.

I started with this recipe from Sugarlaws then tweaked it to make it a cinnamon raisin version. The results are great!

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup of raisins, soaked in warm water, drained and chopped

1 tsp active dry yeast

Pinch of sugar

1/3 cup warm water

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp white sugar (next time I will increase more, maybe 1/2 white sugar, 1/2 brown sugar)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp canola oil

Butter, melted

Additional cinnamon and sugar for rolling

DIRECTIONS:

Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy colored. Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (a few minutes, not even 5). Add raisins. Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand in cinnamon and sugar (1 part cinnamon to 3 parts sugar). Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times. Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with silipat or cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.

Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with additional cinnamon and sugar mixture. Let cool. Really, they are better when they have cooled a little. Enjoy!