Auntie Anne’s Gingerbread Pretzels: Holiday Treats to Make At Home!

We are big time Auntie Anne’s fans in our house.  I remember in college walking downtown with my roommate and we’d get three pretzels to split between the two of us with a side of chocolate dip and call it lunch.  I could totally still do that and I know I’d get no objections from my kids.  Favorite flavor?  Cinnamon Sugar, hands down. As a Lancaster County, PA resident I think it’s pretty cool that the makers of one of my favorite treats is located right here in my own town.  Even cooler is that my husband actually got to meet Auntie Anne’s founder, Anne Beiler, and get a signed copy of her book at his company Christmas party one year.  I feel like I know this company even though I basically just know the feeling of stuffing yourself silly with delicious pretzels.  Close enough.

My kids and I have so much fun with the Auntie Anne’s at-home pretzel kits.  In 2008 when the Phillies won the World Series we made pretzels to celebrate, spelling out ‘Phillies’ in the dough.  As expected they were delish.  This year in preparation for the holidays Auntie Anne’s has come out with two new awesome holiday flavored at-home kits: Gingerbread and Apple Cinnamon.  This weekend we hunkered down in preparation for Huricane Sandy and got our priorities straight: we need snacks.  We baked up one of the Gingerbread At-Home Pretzel Kits and had so much fun making them (my kids like to pretend their on a cooking show so the entire process is narrated) and even more fun eating them.  OMGoodies!

In the box: all the ingredients you need plus very easy-to-follow directions.  I suggest reading them before you get started.  This does take a little time so plan on a small project.  You need to mix up the dough then let it rise for 3o minutes.  (Explain this to your kids ahead of time or else they *might* ask you every 3 minutes when they can roll out the dough and make the pretzels.  Consider yourself warned. )

I whipped up the dough in my stand mixer, let it rise for a half hour, then we got to work rolling out the dough and making all kids of shapes.  The kids wanted to spell out their names while I wanted to try my hand at twisting pretzels.  Not too shabby, right?  After you get them all made, you dip them in a water and baking soda solution before baking them.  The actual baking goes quickly and takes only about 8 minutes total per batch.  After we brushed some melted butter on our masterpieces we sprinkled them heavily with cinammon sugar and then we dug in!

Oh yum!  These are soooo good!  The gingerbread flavor was just enough and not too much.  The pretzels were doughy and soft and sweet.  Yes, that’s a past tense ‘were.’  They lasted one day, and that’s not for a lack of pretzels.  I actually thought this kit made quite a lot of pretzels, more than I remembered from kits we’ve made in the past.  They’re just so darn good we all kept sneaking them and next thing you know, they’re gone.  Looks like we’ll have to buy more.     😀

These new holiday flavors are just one more reason to love Auntie Anne’s!  Check them out on Facebook and Twitter to be the first to hear about their latest products and promotions.  Nom,nom.     🙂      Want to make your own pretzels at home?  You can buy these kits at Walmart, Kmart, lots of grocery stores and other places too.  Find a retailer near you here.

Auntie Anne’s is generously offering one of my readers their own Gingerbread At-Home Pretzel Kit!  Yay!  This giveaway is open to US residents ages 18+ only and ends at 12 midnight ET on November 6, 2012.   You can enter to win [HERE].  Good luck!

 

I was provided with a complimentary Gingerbread Pretzel Kit to facilitate this review.  The opinions in this post are 100% mine.  You can read my full disclosure policy here.