Bavarian Pretzel Recipe

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Got the girl in on making them with me the last few weeks, like a batch a week haha. Did one batch of garlic herb pretzels, those turned out freaking excellent. Anyways, thought I'd bump a good thread on good food. Still just doing AB's method of baking soda and egg wash, turn out fantastic every time.
 
Here are the results:
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They turned out really good. On our second batch, we made a few with cinnamon and sugar mixed into the dough and baked them up. Those were even better. The lye is the secret to perfect browning. The only suggestion for next time is a little more water as the dough was a little tough to work with. Still made great soft pretzels.
 
I whipped up a batch following Kaiser's Laugengebäck recipe from his site, fan-flippin-tastic as usual, its a very similar recipe to this but has a touch of butter and uses DME instead of brown sugar. Nothing like the smell of fresh hot pretzels out of the oven!

And as stated, if you can do the lye bath, it is hard to beat! I have done both the lye and the baking soda, there is a difference, subtle, but it is there, and besides, a bottle of food grade lye will do a load of pretzels! once I tried it I was hooked! and besides I had like 2 tbsp short of 2 lbs of lye sitting around!
 
Anyone been able to find food grade lye from a local source, i.e. not have to order online? Just wondering sort of stores u could try. I have the urge to try my hand at making some pretzels this coming weekend.
 
ALMOST perfect.....I am working out a recipe that will include bacon in the pretzel.

(Thinking I probably shouldn't have said that publicly until after the patent was filed, right?)
 
Anyone been able to find food grade lye from a local source, i.e. not have to order online? Just wondering sort of stores u could try. I have the urge to try my hand at making some pretzels this coming weekend.

Not likely. You could try a pretzel shop or bakery, but I doubt they would sell you some lye if they even have it. Read my post #9 in this thread for an alternative that I won't condone. Otherwise, you're stuck with the far inferior Baking Soda.;)
 
I started making bavarian style lye pretzels a while back. After a couple of batches it occured to me that the dough consistency was pretty much the same as bagel dough. since then I've foregone the pretzel knot and just been making pretzel bagels dipped in lye, rather than boiled.

I use a 3-4% lye solution. meaning about 30-40 grams of food grade lye beads per liter of water. I use the .01g precision scale I use for measuring hops, as well as lab goggles and thick rubber gloves. Always wear a long sleeve shirt and pants/socks/shoes.

just don't do anything stupid and don't do it after having a homebrew or 2, because lye is serious business. I bought my food grade sodium hydroxide from essential depot via amazon. Shipping was more than the lye beads itself, but you only use a very small amount per batch.

Also, you may want to consider more advanced dough fermentation techniques. I think we as homebrewers can appreciate the need for starters in bread baking as well. I suggest the recipe for bagel dough as well as the fermentation schedule on www.artisanbreadbaking.com.

http://artisanbreadbaking.com/bread/bagels/

If you want the real deal, roll the dough balls into pretzel knots. And like I said, skip the boiling and do the lye dip instead.
 
I use a 3-4% lye solution. meaning about 30-40 grams of food grade lye beads per liter of water. I use the .01g precision scale I use for measuring hops, as well as lab goggles and thick rubber gloves. Always wear a long sleeve shirt and pants/socks/shoes.

just don't do anything stupid and don't do it after having a homebrew or 2, because lye is serious business.

Very true. I had the experience of burning the crap out of my arm with lye once. It's mean stuff. Powdered lye mixed with the sweat on your skin will burn you as quickly as concentrated sulfuric acid (been burned by that too). Be careful. Protect your eyes and wash your hands as soon as you're done measuring and mixing. Do all measuring and mixing in/over the sink - that way any spillage doesn't contaminate counter surfaces.

All this may seem silly - until you've been burned by lye.
 
Just ordered some food grade lye over the world wide web and read tons of posts on how dangerous it is (also I've seen Fight Club). Was wondering how you discard your lye water solution? Down the drain?
 
Just ordered some food grade lye over the world wide web and read tons of posts on how dangerous it is (also I've seen Fight Club). Was wondering how you discard your lye water solution? Down the drain?

Many drain cleaners are lye. Once you have mixed the solution for pretzels, it is much more dilute. You could dump your lye right down the drain and be fine though, it would just be expensive. Just make sure you rinse with plenty of water so it isn't hanging around for ever.

As for danger. You worked with stuff like this in your high school chemistry class. Gloves, eye protection, be smart, do not handle it drunk, keep kids and pets away. The only other major precaution is to add the lye to water and not vice versa. With a lot of lye and a little bit of water the exothermic reaction is violent. If you go lye to water, the container will get a little warm, that is all.

Also if you save a solution (I do of potassium hydroxide for mead and brewing), it can eat through glass eventually so use plastic.
 
The lye makes em super gluey huh? :D

No. I ordered lye, but it didn't come in yet (and I'm a bit PO'ed about that). So, I made them last night and today with boiling baking soda solution. They are superb. Can't wait to try the lye solution and compare.

I'm planning a big homebrew party this fall - homebrew, homemade sausages, pretzels. Should be fun.
 
I'm planning a big homebrew party this fall - homebrew, homemade sausages, pretzels. Should be fun.

Mmmmm homebrew party with all the trimmings, I may be down in Cape Coral this fall, I might take the boat up the coast to "visit" you. By visit I mean drink your beer, eat your pretzels and homemade sausages. :D
 
Lemme see if we are heading down there, I am thinking of grabbing a captain for the family boat if we head down there, that way I can get my vacation on while out to sea without worry. the boat can drive itself using GPS, but wrecking a boat that isnt mine because of a computer glitch really worries me.
 
16 pounds of homemade bratwurst are ready to go for this weekend's Oktoberfest kickoff! (Although I have doubts about my first go at a wheat beer)

I've done test batches of Laugenbretzel recipe the original post this week, I felt that my first go at the recipe the OP put up was a little bit too sweet to be truly Bavarian & authentic. (Although it got rave reviews and was delicious)

I changed my second batch to be a touch lighter on the brown sugar (loose pack vs. packed) and added a 3/4 tsp salt to the dough.

I preferred the second batch and felt it to be pretty damned close to authentic Bretzeln.

Next project Riesenbretzel!

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I just made a batch myself. Very tasty. I used baking soda in the water, no egg wash. They came out with a good brown color and they are extremely tasty. I am happy enough with the baking soda that I'm not going to risk getting burned by lye to get a hint of a darker color.

The reason why you need the lye (or baking soda) is that it coats the outside with a very base solution which accelerates maillard reactions. I don't think there's anything special about the flavor of lye it's just that it's far more base than baking soda so you get a higher pH on the exterior.
 
I just made a batch myself. Very tasty. I used baking soda in the water, no egg wash. They came out with a good brown color and they are extremely tasty. I am happy enough with the baking soda that I'm not going to risk getting burned by lye to get a hint of a darker color.

The reason why you need the lye (or baking soda) is that it coats the outside with a very base solution which accelerates maillard reactions. I don't think there's anything special about the flavor of lye it's just that it's far more base than baking soda so you get a higher pH on the exterior.

You are not going to get injured by the lye. That's been overplayed. But you're right, it does not make that much of a difference.
 
caustic can burn through to the bone if handled improperly. It's danger has not been played up at all.
 
Ahh... this thread got me thinking about pretzels again. Gonna have to do up a batch soon. I wanted to reiterate that you need to get food grade lye. I've heard about half of the lye out there is still made using the mercury-cell chloralkali process. This leaves trace elements of mercury in the lye. Food grade is readily available and for $6 you can get a lifetime supply here.
 
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I just ordered some lye for this recipe. Now where's all the homemade mustard recipes?
 
As an alternative to both lye and baking soda, one can use Sodium carbonate (commonly known as washing soda).

Sodium carbonate can be purchased directly, or produced by spreading sodium bicarbonate thinly onto a sheet of aluminum foil and baking for 1 hour at 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

edit: For reference, the pH of sodium bicarbonate is 8.2 while the pH of sodium carbonate is 11.6
 
How do you store your pretzels? I've made two batches that came out great. The first batch I put them in a cookie jar. The next day they were too soft and a little oily. Not good. Do you guys just keep them out in room temp or what?
 
Bulls Beers said:
How do you store your pretzels? I've made two batches that came out great. The first batch I put them in a cookie jar. The next day they were too soft and a little oily. Not good. Do you guys just keep them out in room temp or what?

I wish I knew, honestly. I've basically given up on storing them. Basically you need to eat them fresh. Like within the first 12 hours if possible. After that you can cut them in half and toast them and that helps overcome the chewiness problem a bit.
 
Yep. I make only enough for the same day too. I'd guess freezing in freezer bags might work, then toasting after thawing.

The freezer storage method works. Frozen pretzels can be thawed in the microwave until soft and toasted quickly to restore the crunchy outer texture. Another option is to half back some pretzels and freeze those. When you would like to serve them, simply heat the oven back up to cooking temperature and complete the baking.
 

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