Several teachers were able to schedule their classes in the kitchen during these last weeks of school as an end-of-the-year celebration before summer break. In response to student request, we made soft pretzels with two 7th grade humanities cores on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s a wonderfully simple lesson, and a great way to demonstrate how much tastier a popular street or ballpark food item can be when made from scratch!
The dough consists of flour, brown sugar, salt, yeast, and water. We made it in advance to let it have a chance to rise before class, but gave out copies of the recipe, which students can easily make themselves at home. One particularly equitable student from each table group portioned out the dough, and we got to work rolling our individual portions out on the lightly floured table.
The most direct way to form a traditional pretzel shape is to roll the dough into a skinny rope, twist the ends together, and then flip the twisted end over to meet the other side of the circle. Both times, this was the shape I constructed, but the sheet pan quickly filled with far more creative pretzels–initials, braids, and coils of all sizes. Before baking, we boiled the pretzels in a baking soda and water solution for approximately 45 seconds. The alkalinized water is key, as it helps to create the perfect chewy texture. We then brushed the pretzels with egg wash and chose to sprinkle on one or all of our toppings: kosher salt, large sea salt, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds.
The pretzels took 10 minutes to bake in our convection oven at 450 degrees. We served them hot out of the oven with different styles of mustard and chatted about the summer and what to look forward to in 8th grade. We will be seeing the new 8th graders in the kitchen as soon as we return for the new school year, so it was a fun send-off and a great way to provide continuity for students and teachers alike in our Edible Schoolyard journey.

























































Put Your Honey Where Your Mouth Is
To extract honey, we begin with honeycomb in a wooden frame. An electric hot knife is used to sear the caps off the pores of honey. Then, a sharp metal comb is run over the surface of the frame to allow the honey to flow more freely from it once placed in the extractor. The extractor is a large metal cylindrical tub with slots build into a rotating inner wall. The frames are placed in the slots, the manual crank is set into motion, and golden honey is forced out of the frame via centrifugal force.
We learned a deep appreciation for honey by acquiring it through a series of critical and challenging steps. Just like the appreciation we have for every fresh vegetable that grows at The Edible Schoolyard. It is safe to say that all of our precious honey will be spent with great consideration in the days to come. e.g. on toast
Box full of honey
Pulling the honey combs out of the box
Spinning the honey off the combs
Pouring the honey out of the barrell
The finished product