Bavarian Pretzel Recipe

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menschmaschine

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Well, it's September and Oktoberfest is coming up. I thought I would post this recipe for real German pretzels. I made this recipe last year and I couldn't believe how good they were. A couple things to note: Don't make them too big (like you see at Oktoberfest). That size is more gimmicky than the real Bavarian pretzel. They should be about the size of your fist before baking. Also, the key ingredient to making real Bavarian pretzels is lye (sodium hydroxide). You'll see a lot of recipes with baking soda or an egg wash, but those won't turn out near as good. Food-grade lye is available on the internet (search for soap making), or if you know a bakery that makes pretzels, maybe they'll sell you some. I got mine at Lowes, believe it or not (albeit, not food-grade). It's called Roebic Crystal Drain Opener and the label stated it was 100% Sodium Hydroxide, so I figured, what the heck? I didn't die or get cancer (that I know of) and I read somewhere on the internet that some home-ec teacher used it for her kids with no problems. So, it's probably no big deal, but I don't officially condone its use over food-grade lye:) . Either way, be careful with lye! It's the opposite extreme of a hard-core acid and will cause some serious skin problems if you touch it. For some reason, though (chemistry), when you put these lye-soaked pretzels in the oven, they are perfectly safe to eat after baking. Anyway, on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tsp yeast
1/8 cup warm water (105dF)
1-1/3 cups warm water (105dF)
1/3 cup brown sugar
4-1/2 cups flour (Bread Flour is best)
2 Tbsp Lye w/ 2 qts water
Kosher Salt or Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/8 cup warm water. Stir in 1-1/3 cups warm water, brown sugar, and flour. Knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let dough rise for 30 min.

2. Pre-heat oven to 475dF. On cook-top, heat 2 Tbsp Lye and 2 qts. water in saucepan. Do not boil, just steep. Make sure lye is well dissolved.

3. Tear off some dough and roll a long, thick pencil shape w/ hands. Pick up both ends, cross to form rabbit ears and twist the ends. Pull the ends back to make the "pretzel" shape (press the ends down a little so they stick). Set aside on a lightly floured surface and let rise a few minutes. Do this until you run out of dough. (I think it makes about 12 pretzels, but I can't remember exactly.)

4. Dip each pretzel in the lye bath for 1-2 seconds and place on a salted cookie sheet (you can use stainless steel tongs for this but you may want to wear latex gloves as well just to be safe... also the cookie sheet should be stainless as well. The lye will corrode other materials).

5. Salt top of pretzels and bake for 8-10 minutes or until pretzels are golden brown.

6. Let them cool a little before serving, but they are best eaten warm out of the oven. Serve with your favorite German food. Preferrably, wurst, sauerkraut, and some spicy German mustard!
 
Cool!

This sounds great, thanks for sharing!

:D

(although I will put in a plug for the 'food grade' vs. 'non food grade' argument...and that is you never know what you are getting so be careful. It's all in how it is processed. Without being able to follow the chain of production, you'll always have that in the back of the ole noodle to bug you. The 'what if's' as it were. This is the reason I won't use agricultural lime for pickling etc.)
 
zoebisch01 said:
(although I will put in a plug for the 'food grade' vs. 'non food grade' argument...and that is you never know what you are getting so be careful. It's all in how it is processed. Without being able to follow the chain of production, you'll always have that in the back of the ole noodle to bug you. The 'what if's' as it were. This is the reason I won't use agricultural lime for pickling etc.)

I don't disagree at all. It's just that last year when I wanted to make them, the only source for food-grade lye I could find was like $50 for a few pounds from a chemical company on the internet. I didn't want to spend that much money to make pretzels so I researched alternatives and went to every hardware store in the area. I found that many took it off the shelves because of crystal meth makers. So I took my chances, but felt somewhat confident in it. I debated for a while to use it, but when I saw that a teacher used it for her kids, I felt better about it. We're probably talking hundredths of a percent of contaminants, but I would like to see some chemical analyses of food-grade lye vs 100% NaOH drain opener. I recently did some searches and it looks like there are better options out there this year for food-grade. I saw one sight had it for like $5.00.
 
Tried this recipe over the weekend, very nice. A few more things that I find helpful are that you have to really work a long thread, much longer than you'd expect, probably close to 24" for a fist sized pre-bake pretzel. When dipping, I found using a tong and gently pinching on the top center (at the junction of the twist, letting the part with the two pinched off ends hang down) seems to hold together the best. Do not skip the dough rest, otherwise the dough will never be relaxed enough to make a good pretzel.

I added a small amount of salt as well to my dough mixture. I like the sweetness level of these pretzels and they come out with a really nice crust and a nice chewiness on the inside. Next time I need to find a little coarser salt, something in between coarse sea salt and Kosher salt. Also, a no-stick pan isn't harmed by the lye solution.

Thanks again for the recipe!
 
zoebisch01 said:
Tried this recipe over the weekend, very nice. A few more things that I find helpful are that you have to really work a long thread, much longer than you'd expect, probably close to 24" for a fist sized pre-bake pretzel. When dipping, I found using a tong and gently pinching on the top center (at the junction of the twist, letting the part with the two pinched off ends hang down) seems to hold together the best. Do not skip the dough rest, otherwise the dough will never be relaxed enough to make a good pretzel.

I added a small amount of salt as well to my dough mixture. I like the sweetness level of these pretzels and they come out with a really nice crust and a nice chewiness on the inside. Next time I need to find a little coarser salt, something in between coarse sea salt and Kosher salt. Also, a no-stick pan isn't harmed by the lye solution.

Thanks again for the recipe!

Glad you liked it. I recently made a batch of these for a community gathering. The hostess put them out as an appetizer :confused: and they were gone before the grill was lit!
 
Got the old hankerin this weekend for German food and since I'm down to my last few bottles of Helles I'd thought I'd make pretzels. Man are they delicious!

Pretzel-Lye.jpg


Pretzel-LyeBath.jpg


Pretzels-PreBake.jpg


Pretzels-Baked.jpg
 
My wife would say: "What is that? Is this where you Germans eat the parts of the pig that are supposed to be thrown away?"

Kai
 
EdWort said:
Also, wo hast du die Weisswurst bekommen? Es siet sehr lecker aus!!!

Gut gemacht!

Believe it or not, Safeway. It's actually Dietz & Watson "Black Forest" Bratwurst. That's as close as I could get here in lower-slower Delaware! I really wished it could have been Weisswurst.
 
Where are you in DE? I go camping in Laurel, DE (Trap Pond) several times a year.

Right near Milton... not far from DFH's main brewery. I've been camping there as well... and kayaked through the cypress trees. However, for camping, I miss the Appalachians in PA. Growing up and camping a lot in PA makes camping in flat Delaware seem odd.:cross: Let me know when you're around.
 
I haven't tried making it with lye, though I really want to try it. I have tried Good Eats Alton Brown's recipe. His is very similar, with only a few small changes. Plus he used the baking soda and egg wash method, not quite as good I am sure, but cheap easy and still quite delicious with a wurst and beer!

You should come to Cincinnati sometime, so many Germans here its hard not to love German food.
 
Growing up and camping a lot in PA makes camping in flat Delaware seem odd.:cross:


You probably atleast have some hills. A new little park they opened here in Florida is called Vista View and has tons of hills. Do you know why? It use to be a garbage dump/landfill :drunk:. Florida is very flat my friend, except in Miami, where the women make up for it :D

So how about those bavarian pretzels!
 
Yeah, Tusch... those have to be made with lye. Can't get browning like that with baking soda or eggwash! Well, I guess it's possible, but in that AB episode, he tried to use lye, but his "lawyers" stepped in a stopped him for liability reasons. I think he was just trying to make the point that pretzels taste better when made with lye. But how would I know... I've never made them without it!:cross:

(FishinDave... southern DE is completely flat like Florida.)
 
Hell those were even my Alton Brown baking soda specials. Didn't try to get lye. These are pretty damn good and real easy. But I can't wait to try the real thing.

So yeah, you can get good browning with the baking soda and egg wash, but I can imagine it still can't compare. Alton's recipe takes a couple hours, but only about 20 or 30 minutes of involvement. I let the dough rise for a good hour.
 
Oh hey, yeah I forgot. If you want to make a ton and then on party day, here is what I did...(I don't think I posted exactly what I did earlier)...Just bake them until they are 'set' at the recommended temp. What I mean is just until the dough isn't squishy. They should be pale, not brown. Cool them completely and immediately put them into freezer bags. You must do this or the salt will have water condense on it and make a mess. On party day just throw them onto baking trays and put them in the recommended temp, preheated. As soon as they get all nice and golden brown, they are ready.
 
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