I make homemade soft pretzels and I am making them for an Oktoberfest at a friend's house this Saturday. I have to make them on Friday night because we are leaving at 10am Saturday to drive to the party. I am wondering how I should store them.... I was thinking in a brown paper bag so that they can breathe but I want them to stay as fresh as possible. Any suggestions would be greatly apppreciated.

Thanks! Guten Tag!
Liz

I  know there has been a lot written about the use of lye/baking soda/soda ash (sodium carbonate) when making pretzels and bagels.  I think I understand the pros and cons of each, and for better or worse I've settled on soda ash (sodium carbonate).  I don't mean to reignite the debate on these options.  However, I still find conflicting information on how soda ash should be used.  Specifically, how much soda ash should be used in the dipping solution?  (I've seen recommendations from a tablespoon per quart of water to 2/3 cup per 2 quarts.)  Hot or cold water?  (I've seen formulas that say the water must be cold, and others saying it must be boiling.)  And how long should the pretzels remain in the solution?  (Some formulas say 30 seconds, others say up to 4 minutes.)  Finally, is it necessary to rinse the pretzels in fresh water before baking?  So many questions.  I'd really appreciate a bit of guidance.  Thanks.

First of all, I did a search and couldn't find what I was looking for.

I live in Sonama County (Santa Rosa) and if at all possible I'd like to get my hands on some food grade lye today. I have a last minute request for pretzels and prefer to not make a mess boiling them with baking soda. Anyone have any ideas where I could pick some up around here?

Thanks a ton,

-Alec

Marje's Sourdough Pretzels (Bavarian style) (20 pretzels)

Sponge:

• 1-1/2 cups sourdough starter (that's a whole separate recipe)
• 2 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup beer
• ¼ cup hot water
• 1-1/2 cups white flour (King Arthur brand)

In a large glass bowl, stir together well, cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight on the counter.

Dough:

Put sponge in heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Working with ½ cup at a time, incorporate 2 cups flour into dough. It should be quite firm but flexible; if you slap your hand against the dough, it should not stick to your hand. When you shape this, you shouldn't have to use any extra flour.

Turn into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 3 hours.

To prepare for baking:

Put 2 quarts water into a ceramic bowl; wearing powder-free latex gloves and eye protection, add 2 Tablespoons food grade lye, and let it dissolve. Set aside. Rinse the gloves off with water, dry them on a kitchen towel, and remove them. It doesn't matter if they turn wrong side out; you can reverse them easily by starting to turn them, then blowing into them like a balloon.

Working without gloves, reach into the dough and pull off a piece the size of a jumbo egg. Re-cover the bowl. Roll the dough between the palms of your hands, working wherever it is thickest, until you have a fairly even strand about 18 inches long. Now, working over a cutting board or counter top, lay the strand out flat. Pick up one end in each hand, lift up the strand and flip around, so it twists once. Flop it down on the counter, and bring the ends and twisted section towards you, pulling the twist into the circle of dough. Lay the ends down across the circle at the 4 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions, and press lightly. Lay on a metal cookie sheet that has non-stick spray on it. Repeat with remaining dough (9 to a sheet). Let them rest for 20 or 30 minutes.

Decide how many you'll bake; these do not keep well, and are best fresh. Put whatever you'll save for later into the freezer. Put what you will bake now into the refrigerator and chill for half an hour; this makes them easy to handle without distorting the shape.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and put one rack into the top position. In your sink, arrange a draining rack to hold the dipped pretzels for a couple of minutes. Take the pretzels out of the refrigerator and remove them to a plate. Put your gloves and glasses on, pick up a pretzel and gently lay it in the lye bath. When you have 3 or 4 in the lye, start timing for 90 seconds, turning them over midway through. Pick them up one at a time and lay them on the draining rack. Put the next batch in the lye, then move the drained pretzels to the cookie sheet. When the sheet is full, salt them liberally with Kosher salt. Bake for 14 minutes, eat while they're warm. Oh, wow, are these incredible. Treat the frozen pretzels the same way; you don't need to thaw them.

Don't use coated bakeware; it will peel; don't use cast iron, it will peel; don't use glass, the pretzels don't brown evenly, and the crust gets too thick. When you're done with the lye mixture, run cold water and pour it into the sink. After all, it IS drain cleaner!

Does anyone know of a substitute ingredient to use instead of beer for making prezels?

Hello everyone, I've been trolling around here for a while and I decided its time to finally post something. This is my version of soft pretzels. For the formula and details, check out my blog , The Bread Portal. This is very similar to the Pretzel formula post in the "Favorite Reciptes" section of this blog.

I have made soft pretzels in the past, and have always enjoyed them, however I have always wanted to make a sourdough version. After much internet research, I did not come across any recipes that called out to me, so I decided to do my own. I adapted a Bertinet recipe, simply replacing fermented white dough in the recipe with an equal quantity of firm sourdough starter. I also retarded the dough in the fridge over night... though this was more to do with the fact that I wanted to bake them fresh the next morning rather than anything else.

All in all I was really pleased with the result. The inside was very soft and authentic. I didn't bother with either a lye bath, or boiling the pretzels prior to baking. I plan to try boiling the next time I make these, but the lye bath seems a little to much trouble.

By the way, I will be happy to post the whole recipe if anyone is interested.

happy baking

ben

Greetings! Wanted to create a blog, and give a bit of history and aspirations. I have looked over this site a few times and finally decided to join. I am 31, I have been baking for almost 2 years. I was an army brat, and grew up in Frankfurt and Stutgartt. I first started with pretzels, and have come up with a realy good simple recipe that can be made with packaged yeast or starter. I live in south florida now though, and I'm not so sure the wild yeast here is quite up to snuff. Perhaps the heat and humidity play a role, the first batch and second batch yield a good bread, but the starter then tends to sour too much and turn into a grey lump of bla. I am also quite the avid ametuer chef, and take pride in measuring nothing. This is not a skill that is transferrring well to baking breads. I have been trying to bake a good baguette. Traditionally I have started with my yeast and warm water, then add slowly the flour, of course type depends on what I want, until I get a good dough. But there are books that say to measure and add all at once. There are books that say to knead vigorously for 8 min. There are books that say to knead lightly for 15 min. Some say to add the salt last, some immediatley. Some want a cold rise, some want a warm rise. Some want 3 rises, some want 1. To spray or not to spray? So I will be interested in some recipes and techniques, and I will try and figure out what i am doing when i make pretzels and post. Aufwiedersehen!      

My second attempt at using yeast!

I discovered one packet of my yeast, labeled as 18g, results in more than 35 ml (about 7 tsp or 2 1/3 Tbsp) of dry yeast. Is it okay that I store what I don't use in an airtight tupperware-type container, in a dark cabinet?

I started preparing for the pretzels at 8:10 pm using floyd's recipe here.

I wasn't sure how to activate my yeast, not sure whether to mix in or let it sit on top of the water, but I think it worked correctly; at first, nothing seemed to happen but after a few minutes a thickish layer of tan foamish stuff was on the top.

My brown sugar comes in hard blocks I have to chop up to make like a powder. It wasn't as fine as it could of been if I kept chopping, but after quite awhile, I put it in there. Is it okay that my brown sugar wasn't super-fine?

I had to add a ton of flour, probably 550 ml (2.5 cups) above the original 240 ml (1 cup).

I also didn't know how to knead until satiny. After just a minute or two, it seemed smoother than before, but as I continued kneading it quickly became rougher, and after 8 minutes of kneading and not being sure what I was looking for, I moved on. Also, despite the added flour, it still stuck to the cutting board a lot.

This may be because of the consistency being off, but I couldn't figure out how to "roll" my dough into logs. I kind of squeezed them into the logs, rolling as much as I could (not much) to make them round, and I came out with very inconsistent sizes with loops that didn't want to stick at all.

I used the eggwash.

I didn't know whether to grease the baking sheet, and whether the salt was needed (I always scrape the salt off my pretzels cuz I don't like the taste). I salted one, put garlic powder on one, and left the others plain.

At this point (I know better now) I thought I should only turn on the bottom, not the top, heating element for baking. After 6 minutes, my pretzels were so HUGE, they didn't really have holes anymore. Oh well.

The tops weren't browning at all (obviously since I didn't have any heat up there) but the bottoms were turning yucky black, so I took them out.

You know what? They tasted really good. They taste to me like breadsticks, not pretzels, but still yummy. My husband melted some butter with garlic powder mixed in, and it made a great dip. I liked the garlic powder pretzel best, and wonder whether I could brush them with the butter/garlic powder mix rather than the egg, or in addition?

Looking forward to trying this again:
-with both heating elements on
-rolling the dough out thinner so the pretzels will look more like pretzels
-potentially brushing with butter/onion powder, based on people here's suggestions
-anything else people suggest for me 

We don't really watch the superbowl, and in fact don't have a tv this year (don't ask) but why not eat silly food anyway?

Not my greatest photo, but we ate all the pretty samples so there's no chance for a re-shoot. In the bowl (impossible to make out) is homemade nacho cheese sauce. I made a simple white sauce with cheddar and monterey jack, and added some chopped whole jalapenos that I froze from the garden last year. Could be thicker but WAY tastier than the kind you get at the cafeteria!