Real-Deal Soft Pretzels
I am a big fan of big, soft pretzels. I have tried them a couple of times but did not get them exactly right. This recipe and more importantly the careful workflow, really turned out great. Thank you to Nils for tutoring me on how to form and manage pretzels. Give this a try in the Pizza-Porta and let me know how it turns out.
Recipe:
13 Grams of Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Lard (easier to scoop than weigh)
7 Grams Instant yeast
720 Grams Bread Flour
472 Grams water (100 degrees F)
21 Grams of Kosher Salt (don’t substitute)
Course Sea Salt or Pretzel Salt (not Kosher) for topping
Other Material needed:
1/2 cup food grade Lye (Amazon is helpful) - More on this below
3 12” pizza pans
Parchment
Gloves
Instructions:
Dough
Mix half of the flout with brown sugar, lard, yeast and warm water until all incorporated (by hand or with dough hook). Add Salt and remaining flour and mix until the dough comes together into a shaggy ball. Rest. Kneed dough on countertop for 4-5 minutes until it becomes firm and smooth. Cut to make 12 - 100 gram pieces. Roll each of these into a cylinder about 10” long and let them rest at room temperature, covered for 8-10 minutes. Get a couple of cookie sheets greased and ready while they are resting.
Form Pretzels
Take each dough and roll it into a 21” long tapered log - Fat in the middle and 1/4” thin at the ends. Then treat it like a mini jump rope for a few revolutions and cross your hands over so that there is a fat dough center and the ends are criss-crossed and can be placed over to form a pretzel shape. Carefully arrange each pretzel on the greased cookie sheet. After all 12 are on sheets, let them rise for 30 minutes under plastic wrap at room temperature. Then, place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator for at least one hour. (longer is okay)
While waiting, cut parchment paper circles to fit 3 - 12” pizza pans.
The Scary part
Yes, the next step involves putting your beautiful, pale pretzels into a bath that is volatile and dangerous.* You can choose to use baking soda instead, and your pretzels will taste alright, but they will only darken to look like French bread. Lye is dangerous and damages aluminum and skin - go ahead and wear gloves, glasses, use tools, and be very careful. There is a chemical reaction in the oven that makes the lye safe to consume if in the correct concentration. Put 10 cups of room temperature (not hot) water in a glass bowl and slowly add the 1/2 cup lye (20:1 ratio). Do not put lye in the bowl first. Stir to completely dissolve the lye. Gently lower each pretzel into the lye water and make sure both sides are exposed to the lye for 15 seconds. Place the pretzels 4 to a pan on the 12” parchment covered pizza pans. I had success placing the fat portion toward the center of the pan.
Cooking
Set up the Pizza-Porta with a single stone or double rack with stones with plate setter under and get temperature stabilized at 475F-500F degrees. Take each pan of pretzels and sprinkle pretzel salt or sea salt to decorate. Put a deep slice across the fat bottom part of the pretzel with a razor blade or super sharp knife. Place into the Pizza-Porta and cook until they are dark brown in color (check after 6 minutes, total time 12-16 minutes) Turn if they are cooking unevenly. Remove pan with a metal peel, and place each pretzel on a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy -
Serve hot with mustard, Hot Honey, Butter or sprinkle with cheese
A couple of final notes on these pretzels:
Don’t miss the wonderful aroma while they are cooking.
These pretzels could have been thicker in the middle, and thinner on the ends
I was not decorative with the sea salt - could have been better arranged
The slit in the fat body of the pretzel needs to be deep and neat (use a razor blade)
This recipe had 12 huge pretzels ready in 30 minutes - great for a party!
Have fun, Make great…pretzels
*Lye enables the Maillard effect : “At its most basic, it is a heat-activated reaction between small sugars and amino acids. Dipping dough in lye alters the ratio between sugar and protein, because lye breaks proteins present in the dough into smaller bits. Those are the small amino acids that then combine with sugars to create the flavor compounds in the pretzel's crust.’ PAULA FRIEDRICH - NPR