Pretzels clearly are the puffer fish of baking – not only can you get killed making them, thanks to the use of lye or caustic soda, but even eating them is not without hazards, as George W Bush’s near-death experience with a pretzel has shown. But don’t fear – these ones are not only completely harmless but also incredibly delicious and easy to make.
Having seen Ninive‘s delicious Brezeln a few months ago I decided to finally give them a go. Thanks for the encouragement, Ninive! For my Brezeln, as they are called in German, I didn’t use lye. I used bicarbonate of soda instead. My aim here was to come up with a recipe that only uses ingredients most people will have already in their larders: I want you to try this at home, just like that, because they’re really worth it. And trust me, having grown up on a diet of Brezeln and sausages, I would not have tasted a difference. Like bagels, before baking the ready-formed Brezeln are dunked in boiling water, where the added baking soda gives them their unique taste and colour. And these Brezeln don’t take long, either: a mere two hours from making the dough to biting into your first Brezel; two hours and ten minutes for my family to eat up the whole lot of them.
These type of Brezeln are by far the most popular type of bread in my part of Germany, and have been so for centuries. Whereas the Bavarian Brezn tend to be thinner and dry, the Swabian version is soft, especially around the thick middle. The shape itself is highly symbolic, probably dating back to Roman round breads, and they have been the emblem of bakers for centuries. They are easy enough to form, but do take a look at Ninive‘s post to watch the video she found of a professional Brezel baker forming them. And good luck trying to copy him! Our bakery at home had a Brezel machine, which cut and rolled the dough to even spindle-shaped rolls, ready to be swung into beautifully regular Brezeln by the experienced master baker. They had to be quick, though, because otherwise there would have been queues forming in the shop!
Brezeln – Soft Pretzels (makes 12)
- 500g strong bread flour
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 200ml lukewarm water
- 150ml lukewarm milk
- 25g soft butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 60g bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tbs rock salt
Measure out the flour and dissolve the yeast and sugar in the liquid ingredients. Add the butter and salt and knead vigorously, either by hand or using a mixer or breadmaker, for around 10-15 minutes. You want a soft and slightly sticky dough – add more water if necessary. Once you have a completely soft and even ball, pop it back into your bowl, sprinkle a little flour over it, cover it with clingfilm and leave it to rest for around an hour or until doubled in size.
When the hour is up, cover two baking sheets with lightly oiled baking parchment or simply oil the sheets and sprinkle semolina over the surface. Like bagels, the boiling makes the breads stick to the sheets more so than other types of dough.
Knead the dough and form a thick sausage, which you then cut into 12 even strips. You might need to sprinkle a little flour on your work surface to prevent the dough from sticking.
Each strip needs to be rolled or swung into a long sausage, thick in the middle and thin at the ends.
Swing it around twice to make the arms overlap, then fold them over and attach them to the middle section.
Place the Brezels on your parchment paper and place the latter in the fridge for 20-30 minutes, to firm up the surface.
While the Brezeln are in the fridge, preheat your oven to 240C / 460 F. Bring 2 llitres/ 4 pint of water to boil in a large casserole. Add the bicarbonate of soda and stir. Place 2-3 Brezeln into the boiling water and leave them for 1-2 minutes, dunking them if necessary. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on the parchment. 
Once you have boiled the whole sheet, score the Brezeln along the thick middle, to give them a nice open smile, and sprinkle the rock salt all over them. You need to overdo this a little: part of the pleasure of eating a Brezel lies in the scraping off of the surplus salt and complaining about it. But then complaining is our national sport, so you might want to give that one a miss.
Place the sheet in the oven and bake the Brezeln for ca. 20 minutes or until they have the perfect brown colour.
I am entering these Brezeln in Brotzeitliebe‘s and Zorra’s Bread Baking Day event, which is dedicated to lye breads. Although the challenge was to come up with something new or unusual, my challenge was to make it straightforward and do-able – anything to get you guys into Brezelmaking!
Once you have made these, do have a look around – Ninive‘s use of malt extract and livieto madre sounds promising, and Susanne’s beautiful Silserkranz on Hefe und Mehr is absolutely stunning!
Happy pretzel baking!
Ginger&Bread 
Bookmarking the recipe Ginger. I love pretzels. Will be trying soon 😊
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They are delicious – you’ll love them!
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I bet
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They look beautiful. I have a “Brezeln” friend….whenever we cook together we make pretzels. It’s even more fun with someone else…..you know…sharing the danger! 🙂
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Don’t tell my you’re using the lye! How cool is that!
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I’ll have to add this to my list of experiments
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Is that before or after the breaded puffer fish&chips?
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Haha. I’ll just stick with the pretzels. I could use lye because I do have that hanging around. You can’t buy it easily any more though. I haven’t seen it on the grocery shelves in 15 years.
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I only made pretzels from scratch once and they were for my sons’ Montessori preschool…made them shaped in every child’s initial! Won snack mom of the year award. Retired that skill qui kly! Yours look so good and are giving me the urge to give them a go again. Did you know pretzels are Philadelphia’s signature food along with cheesesteaks? Must be tied to all the German immigrants here! Love to read your posts Ginger! Good luck in the contest. You have my vote!
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Wow – that’s, like, the Nobel Prize of Mums! How could you retire on that! I didn’t know about Philadelphia’s pretzel status, but them I am rather ignorant when it comes to the States (my fear of flying is my only excuse). The Bread Day events are great – it’s unbelievable what other people are able to make! They’ll be posting the links March 5th, I think, on Brotzeitliebe’s blog. I can’t wait to see what they have come up with!
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Ginger these look fantastic; awesome job 😀
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They were fantastic. And gone. in about 10 minutes. 😉
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Gorgeous Ginger, I love your step by step instructions. Now wait a second, are pretzels popular in the UK? I didn’t think they were, I had never found them anywhere, but these look just wonderful!
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They have become more wide-spread – there are some American pretzel stalls in malls and the small hard pretzels are available in supermarkets. M&S sells soft pretzels, but they are no match 😉
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Everyone loves pretzels – there is always a store in every mall. I don’t think I have ever made them? Your pictures and recipe make me want to try at least 🙂
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Do give it a try Juju – it doesn’t take long and they taste wonderful!
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They look delicious!
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They are. Were, rather …
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Living in the land of the brezen, I can safely say that I have bookmarked this recipe for the day when it’s time for us to move on from here! 😀
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Ha ha – but you live in the dry end of it! Try the Swabian Brezel, it’s so much better! 😉
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I will have to now! 😀
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They look delicious. What’s the difference between laugebrot and brezeln? I remember eating a lot of laugebrot as a child, which is made with lauge/lye. Is it the same thing?
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‘Lauge’ simply means an alkaline solution, which is usually lye. Any bread that’s been dunked in a lye solution (or a milder alkaline solution like the one I used) is therefore a type of ‘Laugenbrot’. Check out the Bread Baking Day’s site after March 5th and you’ll see what amazing variety there is!
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Love it Ginger, I would never make pretzels before because I won’t use lye. I will be making these beauties.
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You’ll love them! I felt the same about the lye (especially in a house with small but adventurous children …)
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They look so good and perfect. I like the third picture with the bubble on the sausage .Good luck on your contest, Ginger 🙂
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The bubbles were great! I’d have loved to take a picture of the texture but they were gone too quickly 😉
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Pretzels are popular here in MN and have recently caught on in all forms as bar food to dunk in beer cheese or beer cheese soup! I make Pretzel buns, too, for hamburgers. They hold up so much better than other types of buns. What I’m sayin’ is that I love pretzels and can’t wait to follow up on your links.
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Do you use lye for your buns? I’ll so be making buns next – had to sling a few pretzels first, though …
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No, I thought about ordering some, but I just used baking powder! Worked beautifully, but then I wasn’t looking for a “hard” crust. I did boil the water over the first time, which looked like an awful mess, but it wiped up with no problem!
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Beautiful – love that you use bicarb…and of course I’ll put too much salt on, I love a good grumble!
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Oh my! I never attempted these- not yet- and I can see you have a different technique. They look yummy and I’m sure they ARE yummy! I have to work on my recipe then 🙂
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Go for it – Bread Baking Day’s deadline is March 1st 😉
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I’m definitely a beginner when it comes to making pretzels–these look so good!
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Dear Ginger, many thanks for your two recipes for the #71 BBD. I am so glad, that you send me two perfectly recipes to bake. Best wishes from Germany Ina from the Blog Brotzeitliebe
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Dear Ginger, many thanks for two delicious recipes for the #71 BBD. I am so happy that you send me two of it to bake. I am so thankful. Best wishes from Germany Ina from Brotzeitliebe.de
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Hi Ginger! Thanks for sharing. These look much more ‘real’ than the American versions in the malls that are dripping in butter and salt to cover the lack of flavor. On a side note, I love that your icon is a gingerbread cut out- clever!
K
http://peeledwellness.com
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Thanks! The cutter is gorgeous – I love the happy round belly 🙂
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These look great Ginger! I feel like grabbing some myself 😉
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Have some – they’ve become a staple in our house already!
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I tried this recipe and it worked great! Simple and easy compared to other recipes.
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I’m glad you liked it! Not all good things are complicated 😉
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Great baking! I did not boil the lye I dipped my Brezeln in, but it was stronger anyway as being the real, dangerous variety. And I feel happy to have you inspired…
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Absolutely!
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