When early Christians would pray, they would cross their arms and touch each shoulder with the opposite hand. They also fasted very strictly during lent, making their bread with only water, flour, and salt. A monk shaped this in the form of praying arms for children, and the pretzel was born! To read more about the religious history of the pretzel and for the pretzel prayer, check out Catholic Culture’s pretzel page.
Soft Pretzel Recipe~ What you need:
- 1 package yeast
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 cups flour
- 1 egg
Mix your yeast, water, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the flour, and knead until the dough is smooth. Shape into the form of arms crossed in prayer and place it on a baking sheet. Brush the dough with a beaten egg to give it a shiny finish (I skipped the egg on mine). Sprinkle the top with salt, and bake in an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
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Great activity and I just LOVE the Lenten Pretzel Card!
wow! I just found your blog and I love it! I will probably be using these little cards for my Women's Group Meeting I am hosting in March! Also, my children and I were planning to make pretzels and these will be perfect to reinforce the activity!
Make sure you grease the cookie sheet! I found out the hard way, but they sure were yummy!!!
I baked whole wheat pretzels on parchment paper last year for the first time ever. I also caught my oven on fire… not because of the parchment paper, though!
I love the little pretzel cards to go w/ them – fun!
How many pretzels does this make?
So Cute! I love the card!
I would love to do this for my boys' classes at Catholic school. Thanks for the great idea. So glad I found this blog.
I'm a little curious why the recipe includes yeast if the idea was that pretzels were something that could be made within the fasting restrictions of the Lenten season (aka. no leavened bread). Do you have a recipe without yeast?
I don't have a pretzel recipe without yeast. Maybe you could google it.
Thanks so much for the Pretzel Card. I’m going to have our 1st Communicants attach these to store-bought mini-pretzels to distribute to everyone who comes to Ash Wednesday Mass. This will be their service project for the parish. Blessings for a beautiful Lent.
Hi, Lacy.
I’m planning on sharing the pretzel story with for children’s liturgy. I cannot get the pretzel cards to print without scribd wanting to charge me. Is there a way around that?
It used to be free but Scribd changed their policy. I’ll try and upload it somewhere else soon.