Pretzels | Brezeln
No one knows definitely how the pretzel was born. According to one legend, pretzels were given to children as a reward for saying their nighttime prayers. This seems a bit unlikely to me, because surely this would have interfered with the timing of brushing one's teeth before bed :-)
Yet the pretzel is full of sacred symbolism and secular practicality. On the sacred side, the three holes are said to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the twisted center of the pretzel is said to represent the crossing of arms across one's heart during prayer, a practice often depicted in old paintings of saints. On the secular side, the pretzel was the symbol by which the illiterate during the Middle Ages recognized the location of a bakery. To this day, one will often see a symbol of a pretzel hung in front of bakeries throughout Germany.
Sacred or secular, the pretzel rewards its practitioners with the reward of life-long learning. The pretzel is full of process specific challenges ranging from shaping and proofing to the application of lye.
Recipe for 12 Pretzels
Prepare Lye Solution (3.5%)
1000g Water
35g Food Grade Lye (sodium hydroxide)
IMPORTANT: Lye is responsible for a pretzel's unique flavor and brown color. However, lye is a caustic (corrosive) substance and should not make skin contact. In order to protect yourself, please wear protective gear - rubber gloves and safety glasses - when handling lye. I also recommend labeling your solution so others are aware of its danger and safe handling best practices.
Wearing protective gloves and glasses, pour the lye into water and mix well until fully dissolved. Cover air tight. This solution can be used multiple times.
Prepare Biga
232g Bread Flour (High Gluten Wheat Flour)
134g Water
Pinch of Instant Yeast
Place ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix on slow until no dry ingredients are visible, approximately 3 minutes. Place in separate container, cover tightly, and let ripen overnight for 10-12 hours.
The biga is a type of low hydration pre-ferment that consists of flour, water, and yeast. The low hydration environment is not conducive to protease enzymatic activity responsible for extensibility. A biga is more elastic (contracts) than extensible (stretches) in texture.
Main Dough
367g Biga
929g All Purpose Wheat Flour
491g Water
2g Malted Rye Powder
25g Salt
6g Instant Yeast or 18g Fresh Yeast
35g Lard
Mix: Place all ingredients into a stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Mix on slow for 4 minutes, then on fast for 6 minutes until smooth and extensible.
Bulk Fermentation: Place dough in a small plastic tub, cover, let ferment at room temperature for 1.5 hours.
Divide/Pre-shape: Empty dough onto unfloured table. Scale out dough into square pieces weighing 150g each. Roll each piece (start from the top working towards you) into a cylinder approximately 8" in length. Cover with plastic wrap and let relax for 20 minutes.
Final Shape: Without touching the center part of the cylinder, extend each log to approximately 30" in length (slightly wider than shoulder width). The strand should be symmetrically tapered from the center (the belly) out toward both the left and right sides (the arms), yet leaving the very tips (the hands) untapered.
Lie the strand on the table in front of you like an upside-down letter U. The belly should be farthest from you; the hands should be closest to you. Take hold of the hands, and create the twist by crossing the arms twice, right over left. Then lay the hands over the belly at 10 and 2 o'clock and pinch them gently in place.
Place the pretzel on a sprayed sheet pan. Do not cover, as we want a skin to form on the dough! This is very important, because the pretzels will eventually be dipped in the lye solution. The skin prevents the lye solution from penetrating into the dough, keeps the solution on the surface of the pretzel, and allows the caustic properties of the lye solution to be fully baked off in the oven.
Retard: Once a skin has formed (approx. 20 minutes), cover the pretzels with plastic and place the pretzels in the refrigerator. Allow to retard at least 6 hours and up to 12 hours.
Dip Pretzels in Lye: Remove pretzels from refrigerator and proceed while pretzels are cold. Wearing protective gear (i.e. rubber gloves and safety glasses), dip pretzels one at a time into lye solution for 5-6 seconds each side. Transfer onto a metal cooling rack with a sheet pan underneath. It is best to use a flat metal spider strainer to flip the pretzels over and to transfer them from the solution to the cooling rack.
Pre-Bake: Wearing protective gear (i.e. rubber gloves and safety glasses), carefully transfer the pretzels from the cooling rack back onto the original sheet pan. Sprinkle with pretzel salt. (Optional: score along the belly of the pretzel with a razor blade.)
Bake: Bake 15-17 minutes at 450F, or until desired brown color.
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