Pumpkin Pretzels

These soft pumpkin pretzels look much more appetizing on Carrie's blog than mine did in person. The Hub commented that mine looked like something the dog might have left. Rude, but true, they kinda did. I had some trouble with this recipe. The ingredients came together in a breeze with a stand mixer and bread hook. My dough formed a little crust while rising - maybe it was too warm - that was hard to incorporate back into the dough. Also, I have never made any kind of bread dough that you didn't oil the bowl and the loaf to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The dough was so stiff it was really hard to roll and stretch it into ropes and the hard bits of crust didn't make it any easier. And, of course, all this working with the dough made for some very dense chewy pretzels. The pumpkin flavor was too mild for my tastes.