After COVID hit in early 2020, our church, Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, like other congregations across the country, was trying to figure out how to stay connected with its members. We held services via Zoom and over Facebook Live. On some Sundays, the ministers would meet in an otherwise empty sanctuary. They would lead music and preach to pews full of nobody, but with, hopefully, everyone watching the live stream.
On some occasions, the ministers did their thing from their homes, with the feed switching from the preacher on her back patio to the music minister in his living room with his dog by his side. One Sunday morning, as Rev. Mandy McMichael was preaching from a desk at her home in Woodway, she picked up her laptop and began walking through her house. She eventually made her way back to the desk and finished her sermon. Afterward, she explained that her laptop battery had gotten dangerously low, so she had to retrieve the power cord from another room. She pulled that off without missing a beat.
Calvary’s youth minister, Rev. Ali DeHay, worked hard in holding together a group of teenagers whose attention spans are stretched even while attending big church in person. (Two of those teenagers were ours.) She kept them engaged with encouraging texts and emails, and often sent along suggestions for activities that families could do together.
She began one activity email like this: “Last year, a friend told me that she and her family made pretzels every year during Lent to remind them to pray often, even when it feels difficult. I was confused by this. What on earth did pretzels have to do with praying?”
Turns out, the connection between pretzels and faith goes back a long way — like, a really long way.
The New York Times reported in 1988 that an illuminated manuscript at the Vatican contains an image of a pretzel, “most accounts credit its invention in A.D. 610 to a monk in southern France (or northern Italy) who twisted leftover bread dough into crossed praying arms – the three holes representing the Trinity,” the reporter Elaine Dann Goldstein wrote. The twisted dough was then given as a little reward — pretiola, in Latin — to children who had learned their prayers.
Other scholars have argued that the word “pretzel” is actually derived from the Old German term “brezitella.” Some evidence has suggested that pretzels could be used as a substitute for meat during Lent.
Later, during the Middle Ages, monks gave pretzels to the poor, a gift that provided actual sustenance. Images of the pretzel then began appearing in paintings as a sign of good luck.
DeHay concluded her email by saying, “As we consider the beginning of the season of Lent together, I thought that this might be a fun activity for all of us to do — even if we can’t do it together. Sophie and Brazos’ mom gave me a great pretzel recipe to use, and I’ve included it and an article on how pretzels were invented.”
She then encouraged the young people to make pretzels with their families, and to share photos of the results with her and the rest of the youth group.
The Recipes
Soft Pretzels
For the dough:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) instant yeast
- 1 cup warm water
For the topping:
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
- Coarse, kosher or pretzel salt, optional
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Add the flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water to a large bowl. Mix until well-combined. Knead the dough, by hand for about 5 minutes, until it’s soft and smooth. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and let sit in a warm place until doubled, about 30-45 minutes.
In a shallow bowl, add the boiling water and baking soda. Stir the mixture until the baking soda is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
Heat the oven to 475. Line a sheet pan with parchment and lightly spray the parchment paper with nonstick spray. Set aside.
When ready to shape the dough, lightly spray a clean work surface. Scrape the dough out and divide into 8 equal pieces. Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes uncovered. Then roll each piece into a long thin rope, about 25-30 inches long. To shape the pretzels, crisscross the ends of the dough rope, then overlap the ends in the center of the rope.
Pick the pretzel up and dip it into the water-baking soda mixture, making sure to coat both sides of the pretzel well. Place the pretzel on the sheet pan. Continue until all pretzels are shaped and dipped.
Let the pretzels sit for 10 minutes before baking. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with butter and sprinkle with salt. Serve while still warm or they can be reheated in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. Serve with the marinara. Makes 8 pretzels.
Marinara Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 5-6 basil leaves, chopped
Add the olive oil to a pan set over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and allow it to turn golden brown. Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn.
Add the wine and reduce by half. Add the tomatoes, then lower the heat and allow to simmer. Add the salt, pepper and brown sugar. Stir and continue to simmer. Just before serving add the basil, and more salt and pepper, if needed. Makes about 2 cups
