Pretzels

Since moving to Germany it is safe to say I have developed a Pretzel addiction.

I love them.

They are literally everywhere. Every bakery sells them. They even have little huts in the street selling them. Yummy, salty, scrumminess.

I had to at least attempt to make them at home. I researched lots of recipes online and stumbled across a great recipe from “Once upon a chef” and another from “The Kitchen Paper“. This recipe is kind of an amalgamation of them both.

Ingredients –

• 1 cup milk
• 1 package active dry yeast (not rapid rise yeast)
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided (2 tablespoons for the dough; 3 tablespoons for brushing on finished pretzels)
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/3 cup baking soda
• Coarse salt, to taste*

Instructions

Warm the milk until it is hand hot, – about 40 seconds in the microwave. Sprinkle in your yeast]. Leave this for 5 minutes to froth up.

 

Next add your Sugar,flour, melted butter and salt.  Mix until combined.

Either by hand or in your mixer with a dough hook attached, knead for about 5 minutes.

Make the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave it in a warm place for an hour until it has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces.

Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 24 inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch.

Form each into a pretzel shape (form a U-shape, then holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press firmly onto the bottom of the pretzel).

Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a pan. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on a prepared baking sheet (re-shaping if necessary) and sprinkle lightly with course salt.

Bake until golden, 10 – 12 minutes. Melt remaining 3 tablespoons butter and brush on baked pretzels. The pretzels are best enjoyed fresh on the same day.

If you prefer a cinnamon sugar topping, don’t add the salt.

Brush with butter after baking and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar (1/2 cup sugar plus about 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon)

The pretzels are really tasty, however they were just not the same as the German pretzels. I think the absence of bread flour caused this.

That does mean just one thing, more pretzel baking soon!