Baking Pretzels At Home

12/20/2020 English German

Edition # 136
San Francisco, 12-20-2020

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Baking Pretzels At Home

Figure [1]: The freshly baked pretzels strike fear into the heart of Munich pretzel makers.

Michael Fresh pretzels are unfortunately hard to come by in San Francisco. You can buy day-old pretzels from "Esther's Bakery" in Mountain View at the organic supermarket "Rainbow Grocery," but who likes stale pretzels? As previously reported (Rundbrief 06/2016), I discovered a pre-made pretzel baking mix a few years ago. I used it to bake a tray of pretzels every few weeks and was quite satisfied with it.

Due to Corona, I spent a lot of time at home and stumbled across a Youtube-Video with a recipe for perfect pretzels using ingredients like flour, yeast, water, and drain cleaner. You read that right, because it's lye that gives pretzels their typical dark brown color and the distinctive taste that sets them apart from ordinary rolls.

Figure [2]: Concentrated lye makes the pretzels turn brown when baked.

You can order concentrated lye powder online, but be warned, it's potent stuff. Not only does it clear clogged drains, but it also reacts vigorously when it comes into contact with water. That's why you should only briefly dip the pre-formed pretzel dough into a 5% lye solution before placing them on the baking sheet.

Figure [3]: The stand mixer with a dough hook kneads the pretzel dough.

Supermarkets in America don't sell yeast as fresh yeast in small paper packets like in Germany, but as powdered dry yeast. That is, they do in normal times. Currently, there seems to be a home baking boom, and yeast is sold out everywhere. Occasionally, you might find a small tin of Italian dry yeast ("Secca") gathering dust in an organic store. However, the American yeast giant "Fleischmann" offers a pound of the stuff on Amazon for about 10 dollars, and that will last a year if you make pretzels every week.

Figure [4]: The finished pretzel dough just before portioning.

Here's the recipe from the linked video: Dissolve 13g of dry yeast in 365g of lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then, mix 632g of bread flour with 12g of salt and add it to a stand mixer with a dough hook. Slowly pour in the yeast water. After kneading for 5-10 minutes, the dough is ready. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes, then divide it into approximately 100g pieces. Shape these pieces into 20cm long cylinders and let them rest for another 20 minutes.

Figure [5]: Artfully twisted pretzel dough pieces.

Next, roll out the cylinders long and thin, shape them into pretzels, briefly dip them into the diluted lye solution (using disposable gloves), and place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle coarse salt on the pretzels and bake them in a preheated oven at 420 degrees Fahrenheit (215 degrees Celsius). After 20 minutes, take them out and let them cool on a rack. Done! I made my Own Pretzel Baking Video for YouTube . Check it out, like it, and subscribe, as the pros say.