Pretzels

Pretzels…. the name itself fascinated me when I heard it for the first time. I liked the unique shape of it too 🙂 So, this has been in my bucket list since some time. Pretzels are of 2 kinds, the soft bread like ones and the other one is a hard and crunchy type. The one below is the softer and chewy one. This is supposed to be eaten when it’s fresh and still warm. The hard ones have a longer shelf life. The baking soda or lye bath given to these breads give the unique kind of crust to these pretzels. It’s generally sprinkled with rock salt or kosher salt. But it can be glazed with sugar or cinnamon too and can be filled with cheese for a better taste and flavour.

Finally, today morning I managed to bake these pretzels along with some cheddar cheesy dip for our breakfast. But somehow, people at home didn’t share my excitement 🙁 Nobody said anything much. But I was happy to try this out atleast once, so that it finds a place iny blog 🙂 The outcome of my first trial was absolutely perfect. These had a perfect crust and a chewy interior. The rock salt sprinkled on the top looked beautiful too. The soda bath had given it a beautiful crust. The golden colour on top was simply brilliant. 

Please do try it once and share your feedback and experiences with me. It is very easy to make and you can use any basic bread recipe to make the dough.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 200 gm
• Salt to taste
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Butter 2-3 tsp
• Milk plus water ~ 150 ml
• Instant yeast 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda 2 tbsp
• Rock salt to sprinkle
• Water for soda bath 3-4 cups

Method:

• Mix flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl and add the lukewarm water and milk mixture to it.
• Knead it into a soft and elastic dough for atleast 8-10 minutes. Add 1-2 teaspoon of butter or oil while kneading.
• Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover the bowl with a cling wrap or shower cap and keep it till the dough doubles in size. 
• Take a big sized tray and line it with parchment paper.
• Gently punch out the gases and knead for a minute or two.
• Divide the dough into 6 parts each weighing around 55 gm. (You can take around 50-80 gm of dough and your pretzel size will vary accordingly)
• Take one part of the dough ( keep the remaining parts covered with a clean towel) and roll it into a long rope of around 20-21 inches in length.

• Shape it as seen in the picture below. Place the rope like the letter U and cross over the edges and bring it at the base of U. For more details you can refer some you tube videos.

• Place the shaped pretzel onto the lined tray.
• Repeat it with the other parts.

• Keep the tray lightly covered with a towel for atleast 15-20 minutes.
• Meanwhile take a big and flat pan and fill it with 3-4 cups of water and boil it.
• Preheat the oven at 200 degree celsius for atleast 10-12 minutes.
• When the water boils, add 2 tablespoons of baking soda into it.
• Gently pick a pretzel using a slotted ladle and immerse it into the boiling water.

• Let it remain in the water for 30-45 seconds and slowly flip it in water so that the opposite side is in water.
• Gently remove the pretzel from the water and place it back on the tray.
• Repeat it with the remaining pretzels.
• Apply milk wash or egg wash (optional) on each of these pretzel using a silicone brush and sprinkle some rock salt on top of these pretzels.

• Bake these at 200 degree celsius for 14-16 minutes or till the top is golden in colour.

• Remove from oven and smear it with butter.
• Serve it warm with any cheesy dip of your choice. Look at the crumb… Lovely, isn’t it?