HOMEMADE, AUTHENTIC PRETZEL RECIPE
As a German, in particular a Bavarian, life is meaningless without pretzels (or as it is known in German ‘Brezel’ or ‘Breze’ if you are inclined to be authentically Bavarian). That holds true, even if you are only half German like me… You can eat them for breakfast (with or without sausages), as a snack (slathered in pale, creamy butter), for lunch served with cheese or for dinner where yesterdays pretzels are turned into todays dumplings. You can buy them in all sorts of shapes and sizes, even though most common is the twisted, paperback sized miracle scattered with coarse salt. At Octoberfest you can then purchase the XXL version, roughly the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chest (back in his golden days). You can also have them sprinkled with poppy, sesame, pumpkin or sunflower seeds or anything else that takes your fancy.
When I moved to London, a good pretzel was sorely missed. Each time I stepped off the plane at Munich airport, the bakery was the first place I rushed to, grabbing a pretzel for the onward journey. It was also the last snack I bought, devouring it on the plane home. On my last trip back to Munich a few weeks back, I must have eaten my bodyweight in pretzels! Returning to London I was just greeted by chain sandwich shops and mediocre coffee places. Where were all the bakeries with delicious cakes, fabulous breads and most of all, where were the pretzels? 
I decided it was time to take action. After all, as a trained chef it cannot be difficult to make your own pretzels. Little did I know. Yes, little did I know – how easy it is! Yes, that most definitely warranted bold font. Baking pretzels is not much more complicated than making a simple white loaf of bread. And the result – nearly identical. Hurrah! Pretzels are now to be had at all hours and days.
The perfect Pretzel has to be a dark golden brown. Crispy on the outside, yet still lightly chewy. Soft and pillowy on the inside. You also don’t need to restrict yourself to the standard pretzel shape. You could make little knots, buns or small baguettes. Just try not to make them too large otherwise they may not bake all the way through and you have a burnt crust. Now go – be creative! Make your own pretzels. Wow yourself and your friends.
Make ahead:
- You can make the pretzels up to step 10, then freeze. Bake from frozen, they will need roughly 10 minutes longer.
Secrets to Success:
- Boiling the pretzels in water with bicarbonate of soda sets the crust and will ensure the required chewy texture. You do something very similar with bagels.
- Be patient and be flexible. The temperature in your kitchen will greatly affect how your yeast works and so will determine how long your dough takes to rise. On a hot day it may only take 45 minutes, if your kitchen is cool it can take longer.
- Knocking the dough back before shaping is important as it redistributes the large air bubbles that get created when the dough rises. It will ensure a nice even crumb inside your final baked product.
- The amount of liquid required for a bread dough also depends on the weather (i.e. the humidity in your kitchen) as well as the type of flour you use. You want a wet dough – but not so wet you can’t knead it!
- For a better crust heat a roasting tin in the bottom of the oven and add a large splash of water to the oven when you put the pretzels inside to bake. The steam works wonders!
| Prep Time | 30 min |
| Cook Time | 20 min |
| Passive Time | 1 hr |
| Servings |
pretzels
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Ingredients
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- Put the milk in a saucepan and scald the milk. That means to bring it to steam but turn it off just before boiling. Leave to cool to around body temperature
- Meanwhile measure out the flour, table salt and caster sugar into a large bowl
- Dissolve the yeast in a couple of tablespoons of the warm milk, then pour over the flour. Add 3/4 of the remaining milk and work in using a cutely knife. You should see large flakes of dough forming. If you still have dry patches of flour ad more milk until they disappear. Bring together in your hands.
- On a lightly floured surface (and if required, lightly floured hands) knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
- Return the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, around 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C /fan 200°C.
- Bring 2 litres of water to the boil in a large pan. Add the bicarbonate of soda and leave to boil around 10 minutes.
- Knock the dough back (i.e. flip the dough out onto your work surface and knead a couple of times) and then form the dough into a roughly 25cm long sausage shape and cut into 8-10 even sized pieces.
- Form the pretzels – for help on how to shape them look at this wikihow link –> http://www.wikihow.com/Twist-a-Pretzel. For German authenticity the ends should be thinner than the middle. You can also create any other shape you desire!
- Place the shaped pretzels into the boiling water, one or two at a time. Leave to boil for 20-30 seconds (they will puff up quite a lot). Drain briefly then scatter with seasoning of your choice.
- Bake the first half, 20-25 minutes on the top shelf of the oven. Meanwhile boil the remaining pretzels and prepare to bake them when the first half comes out.
- Let cool and devour…
- Guten Appetit!
