Pretzel Buns sticking.. driving me nuts!
Hello all.. we are finally getting around to baking wholesale numbers of pretzel hamburger buns (pretzel brioche actually!) yet we are still dealing with the problem of the pretzel buns sticking to the cooling racks we bake them on. Why do we bake on cooling racks? I'll explain..
We are making pretzel brioche and the dough is very, very delicate. We have to proof them on the racks because once they have double in size, we then apply the lye bath to them. The cooling racks allow the lye to drip down into a lexan so we can reuse the lye. We can't at any point touch the buns with a tool or our hands and dip them by hand because the dough is so delicate. If we do, the dough will squash. So we have to leave them on the rack for the proofing process and basting with the lye.
I am going to try a teflon cooling rack but I am unsure if the lye with eat through it or become toxic. We sprayed pan release all over the chrome rack we currently use but we still had sticking. It's driving us nuts and we have people clamoring for these pretzel brioche buns.. any help or advice would be much appreciated. Thank you! :)