Auntie Nana's Pretzels

Ever since Auntie Anne's Pretzels came to town I was one of the first customers who welcomed them and joined in the queue to get a taste the first freshly baked batch of pretzels in Dublin. I liked it but strangely enough, was never a fan of it back home in Malaysia. But, since they opened here, I can say that at least almost every week I will go and get a bite of pretzels. Until one fine day that is. The story goes like this.

A friend of mine was on the way to my house and called me asking what flavour pretzel I liked as she was feeling generous and wanted to get some for all of us at home. So, after telling her that cinnamon sugar is my all-time favourite, she said

OK! See you in 10 minutes...

I just couldn't wait for my friend to arrive and was almost drooling for the pretzels. Our doorbell rang and excitedly, I opened the door.

I'm sorry babe, but I didn't buy any for you.

I was so dissapointed (although I kept a smile on my face). To be fair, she bought as replacements, all kinds of sweet pastries from Marks & Spencer. After having a good go at the pastries, she started to explain why she didn't get the pretzels...

As usual, there was a queue for the pretzels but by the time it got to her turn, she had to wait for another five minutes as they had run out and had to put a new batch into the oven. As soon as the pretzels came out, the girl working in the kiosk started to glaze all of the pretzels.

Nothing out of the ordinary there but guess what? It looked like the Auntie Anne's employee had been using the same brush to glaze the savoury sausage pretzels as well as all the other sweet pretzels!

Well, I know it might not be a big deal for other people but for us Muslims, it's a very BIG deal and quite complicated to explain. To cut it short, it's as bad as offering a vegetarian a 12 oz. beef steak.

So, my friend asked me again. Would I buy the pretzels from Auntie Anne's if I had seen what she had seen?

Mmmmm...I was still dissapointed but I knew what she did was right. Oh well, that's the end of Auntie Anne's for me. Well, at least it'll save me money on this not-so-healthy bread.

After a about a week or so, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. My friend did tell me that Auntie Anne's has this DIY pretzel kit so that you can make pretzels yourself at home but I was just not into it. Spending €10 for the kit but still having to do it from scratch? Not for me.

So, I Googled pretzels and found this nice Soft Pretzel recipe.


The results were so fantastic. It's really easy to make and I bet you can save a lot of money by making them yourself. To top it off, it's delicious too and just as good as Auntie Anne's but with the added bonus that these pretzels are home-made by Mummy Nana!!!