Easy as... soft pretzels?

Anyone out there ever made soft pretzels?
If you answered yes - then why didn't you tell me how easy it was? Furthermore, why didn't anyone tell me how cheaply they can be made in comparison those places in the mall?

Annie Anne's (which I used to love) charges something like 2 bucks for a dried out, flavorless greasy mess. There are 2 places in the Fairgrounds Farmer's Market in Reading where we go, and hopefully some fair or market near you that really know what their doing. But a pretzel still costs at least a buck. I'm pretty sure the red-head and I made the equivalent of 15-18 or so pretzels for less than a TOTAL of 2 dollars. We're talking flour, yeast, salt, water, brown sugar (just a touch), and baking soda. That's it.

But back to the food itself. They were quite good, crusty on the outside, fluffy and warm on the inside. There's no way the cook can take credit for this - as you can see, it took us a while to get the shape right - but it was tons of fun. This was probably our best batch of standard shape:

This would be a great baking project for kids to try. I can attest that every single shape cooked at the exact same rate. So little hands making fun pretzel shapes would not be a problem, in fact, it would be even more fun to experiment. Maybe have the little tykes spell their name? Give it a shot. Here are some shape experiments - sticks and nuggets: