Here's a recipe I developed for making real Bavarian pretzels using a
food processor:
Laugenbretzl (Bavarian Style Soft Pretzels) in the Cuisinart
Laugenbretzl (the German for soft Bavarian style pretzels), seem
daunting to bake but are actually quite easy and are always
delectable. The hardest part is dealing with the very stiff dough
and so I adapted this recipe for my 14 cup Cuisinart from the many
that can be found on the internet. This takes an arduous 15 minute
hand kneading process down to about 3 minutes and achieves much more
consistent results.
Let me also say that this recipe uses the traditional "Lauge" or lye
solution which gives Bavarian pretzels their unique brown color and
taste. If you are afraid of using lye go on the internet where you
will find plenty of recipes that use a baking soda solution. The
result will look like a pretzel but taste more like bread than a real
pretzel. I do not recommend you use lye. I merely tell you what I do
and why I do it.
For those of you who think that food grade lye is an expensive item I
refer you to Amazon where 2 lbs. (which will make many dozen of
pretzels) of food grade lye costs about $12.00 including shipping.
PLEASE NOTE: Lye is extremely caustic. Wear gloves and eye protection
when using. Always add lye to water; NEVER add water to lye!
570 g. bread flour
2.5 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. instant yeast
340 g. ice water (be sure it is really cold)
2 Tbs. soft butter
1 Tbs. malt syrup
1. Place flour, salt and yeast in Cuisinart and pulse several times to mix.
2. Drop softened butter into flour mixture and pulse several times again.
3. Dribble malt syrup over flour mixture and again pulse several times.
4. Have a cooking thermometer handy. Pretzels come out best when the
dough, during mixing, does not exceed 65F. The Cuisinart must be
handled so as to not let it heat the dough much beyond this temperature.
5. While pulsing Cuisinart quickly pour water through the feed tube
into the bowl until dough forms. Then knead at full speed until dough
ball forms and dough warms to about 65F, about 1 minute or less. The
dough should form a ball and fully clean the sides of the bowl.
6. Remove dough and hand-knead for two or three minutes until a
smooth, elastic and pliable dough forms.
7. Round dough into a ball and place in greased bowl, turn to grease
dough all over, cover and let rest 20 minutes.
8. Remove dough to counter and divide into 12 80-gram pieces. Keep
them covered.
9. Round each piece of dough into a ball and keep them covered.
10. Take a piece of dough, stretch it into a 5" rectangle, fold the
rectangle like a business letter and roll it into a 7" or 8" sausage
with tapered ends. Set aside covered.
11. After all "sausages" have been rolled. start with the first one
and roll it out to 24" with the middle thicker than the thin ends.
Twist into a traditional pretzel shape by laying out a U shape,
twisting about 2" of the thin ends together once and then bringing
the twisted ends up to the body of the pretzel. Press the ends into
the body of the pretzel so that they stick. Look in the internet for
videos of this process. Once you have done it successfully it is very easy.
12. As you make the pretzels lay them out upside down on a baking
sheet which has been covered with parchment paper which has been
lightly sprayed with cooking spray such as PAM. Generally I get six
large pretzels to sheet.
13. Place the trays with the formed pretzels in the refrigerator
overnight. If possible, turn the pretzels over after about 4 hours.
14. Next day, preheat oven to 425F.
15. Make a solution of 1/2 cup food grade lye in 10 cups of cool
water (5%) in a stainless steel or glass or ceramic bowl (never in
plastic). BE SURE TO PUT LYE INTO WATER (NEVER THE REVERSE!) AND WEAR
GLOVES AND PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR. AVOID VAPORS.
16. Wearing gloves, dip formed pretzels into lye solution, drain and
place back on parchment lined baking sheet.
17. Cut each pretzel with a serrated knife for about 1.5 inches in
the belly - the thickest part. Sprinkle pretzel with pretzel salt,
sesame seed or poppy seed or a combination. You can also sprinkle
with grated Gruyere cheese if you like.
18. Bake at 425F for about 15 minutes or until dark golden brown.
Rotate the tray after 1/2 of the baking time.
19. Let pretzels cool on a rack. They taste best shortly after being
baked but can be frozen and reheated in a 325F oven. They taste
wonderful when split and lightly toasted on a bagel setting.
Frank
Frank Metzger
fmtz@aol.com
561-727-8832