Authentic Bavarian pretzels, with their thin, tangy, crackly surface
and thick chewy interiors, were something that Robert and Esther Nio
dreamed of many times soon after immigrating to the United States
from Germany in 1997. They also missed the hearty whole-grain breads
of their homeland: dense, seedy breads, thinly sliced and spread with
butter and eaten simply that way, or used for various
sandwiches. After several years of making a living working for
various business firms, and having four children, they decided to
start their own bakery: Esther's German Bakery. Since neither of them
had baked commercially, they needed to find a master baker. An ad
they posted on the Internet brought them more than thirty applicants.
One of them was Rudy Klopp. Rudy, born near Stuttgart in Bavaria, and
his wife were working in Guatemala when he happened to run across
Robert and Esther's ad. To be able to bake real German breads had
been a dream of his, too.
The bakery opened in Palo Alto, California, in April 2004, and it was
a success from the very beginning. There is no storefront--the breads
are sold to restaurants and at farmers' markets. It was Rudy who
developed their recipes, including this one for Schwabisch
pretzels. What follows is a home version of what he makes at the
bakery. There the pretzels are topped with salt or various
seeds--sesame, poppy, and pumpkin are the most popular. Rudy is
generous with the seeds. He plops a pretzel, top side down, into a
bowl of seeds so practically the entire surface gets coated.
A traditional step in making these pretzels is dipping them into a
dilute solution (3%) of lye before baking. The pretzels are perfectly
safe to consume, and there really is no substitute for this
step. Many bakeries that make similar types of pretzels dip them
into a baking soda bath, but baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and
lye is sodium hydroxide--two entirely different substances. The lye
gives the pretzels a unique, glossy sheen, a crackly surface, and a
special tangy taste that cannot be duplicated with baking soda.
However, that said, if you do not wish to go to the trouble of buying
and using lye, I've given instructions for substituting a baking soda
bath. The pretzels will be dark on the outside and still be chewy on
the inside.
At the bakery, the dough is shaped into pretzels soon after kneading,
without allowing the dough to rise. Rudy explained that because the
dough contains diastatic malt powder, a ready source of carbohydrate,
the yeast cells can begin multiplying right away before they start
using the carbohydrates in the flour for nourishment. Adding sugar
also works, but that would sweeten the dough, which is not
desirable. Barley malt syrup will also work, and I've given
instructions for using it too. I've made the pretzels at home both
the way Rudy does and also after allowing the dough to rise once
before shaping. The pretzels have a greater depth of flavor and a
slightly chewier texture if the dough has this preliminary rise, so
that is what I regularly do.
At the bakery, Rudy always holds back a small portion--5 to 6 percent
by weight--of the dough to add to the next day's batch of
pretzels. This is an old technique, and the "old dough" imparts a
unique tang to the new batch, along with some extra yeast cells. When
you make the dough for the first time, Rudy suggests adding 1/4 cup
of light rye flour to the dough for that tang, as I describe below.
Then reserve a few ounces of dough from your first batch of pretzel
dough in a resealable plastic bag and refrigerate it for up to 3
days, ready to add to your dough the next time. If you don't plan on
making pretzels anytime soon after your first foray, you can freeze
the reserved dough for up to 1 month. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.
Yield
Makes 12 large pretzels
Ingredients
Dough:
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
4 tablespoons warm water (105° to 110°F) if using barley malt syrup,
6 tablespoons if using malt powder
4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light rye flour
4 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons diastatic malt powder or 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cool water (75°F)
Lye or baking soda bath:
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) food-grade sodium hydroxide pellets or 2
tablespoons baking soda
4 cups cool tap water
About 1 cup coarse salt or pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds
Directions
To make the dough, sprinkle the yeast into the 4 or 6 tablespoons
warm water in a small bowl or cup. Stir well and let stand until the
yeast is dissolved, about 10 minutes. Add the barley malt syrup, if using.
In the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer, stir together both flour,
the salt, and malt powder. Add the butter. Attach the flat beater and
mix on low speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until the butter is in very tiny
pieces and thoroughly incorporated into the flour. Add the dissolved
yeast and cool water and mix for a few seconds, until the dough
masses onto the beater. The dough will be very firm and there may be
particles of flour that have not been completely mixed into the
dough. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest for
10 minutes.
Switch to the dough hook. Because the dough is so firm, begin
kneading on medium speed to get it moving rapidly around the mixer
bowl. When it looks as if it will mass around the hook, reduce the
speed to low and knead the dough for about 8 minutes, until it is
smooth and elastic and feels quite firm; it will not be at all
sticky. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead it briefly on your
work surface to feel its suppleness and firmness.
Wash and dry the bowl and replace the dough in the bowl. Cover
tightly with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise until it has
doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. When you press a finger into the
dough and withdraw it, the depression should remain.
Dislodge the dough from the bowl with a dough scraper and set it on
an unfloured work surface. Knead briefly. Divide the dough into
twelve 3-ounce portions with a bench scraper or sharp knife. Reserve
the extra dough in a resealable plastic bag and refrigerate or freeze
it to use in your next batch of pretzels. Roll each portion of dough
into a ball and set the balls slightly apart on your work
surface. Cover them with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest for
15 to 30 minutes. Line two large baking sheets (18 x 12 x 1 inch)
with cooking parchment.
To shape the pretzels, roll a ball of dough under your palms on an
unfloured surface, preferably wood, until it is about 23 inches long,
with a fat middle, almost 1 inch thick, that gradually tapers to a
thickness of about 1/8 inch at both ends. If the dough resists and
retracts, set it aside, covered with a kitchen towel, and work on
another piece of dough. In a few minutes, the first piece of dough
will behave just as you want it to. When the dough is the proper
shape and length, keep your hands on the end for 2 to 3 seconds, just
to hold the dough in its stretched position briefly, then lift the
dough by its ends, give it a quick twist in the air, and set it down
on your countertop. Pinch the two thin ends of dough firmly onto the
arms of the pretzel. On your first few tries, you may feel this is a
hopeless proposition, but with practice it goes pretty fast. If you
don't want to bother with these aerial gyrations, simply twist the
pretzel into its proper shape on your countertop. Set the pretzel on
one of the prepared sheets. Shape the remaining pretzels, placing 6
on each sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Cover the pretzels
loosely with kitchen towels and let them rise for about 30 minutes,
just until they've increased in size by about half. Do not let them
rise more than that, or they will be light and airy instead of dense
and chewy. If in doubt, err on the side of underrising.
When the pretzels have risen, place the pans in the freezer for 1
hour to firm the pretzels and make them easy to handle.
To dip and coat the pretzels, (if using lye, wear rubber gloves), put
the lye pellets in a shallow plastic, stainless steel, or glass pan
measuring 12 x 8 x 2 inches or 8 x 8 x 2 inches; I use a plastic pan
with a snap-on lid. Add the water and stir with a metal spoon to
dissolve the lye. Wash all utensils thoroughly after using. If using
baking soda, simply dissolve it in the water in one of the pans
suggested. Lye will discolor wood, so put several thicknesses of
newspaper on your countertop to protect it, and set the pretzel bath
on the papers. (The lye bath can be reused several times; cover
rightly between uses and store in a cool place. The baking soda bath
should be made fresh for each baking.)
Put the coarse salt or the seeds in a small bowl large enough to
contain a pretzel (or several small bowls if using more than one type
of seeds).
Remove the pretzel from the freezer. Dislodge 2 pretzels from the
parchment, and put the pretzels into the bath you're using (using
kitchen gloves if working with lye). They should be completely
covered by the liquid. After 15 seconds, lift a pretzel out of the
bath and let the excess liquid drain back into the bath. If salting
the pretzel, set it back on the parchment-lined baking sheet top side
up and sprinkle lightly with coarse salt. If coating with seeds, drop
the dipped pretzel into the seeds, top side down, then lift the
coated pretzel out of the seeds and replace it seed side up on its
baking sheet. Continue in this way until all the pretzels are dipped
and salted or seeded.
One of the hallmarks of a Schwabisch pretzel is a slash mark on its
fat middle. During baking, the slash expands, giving the pretzels a
light-colored center. To slash the pretzels, let the dipped pretzels
stand at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, just to soften them
slightly making them easy to cut. With one hand (gloved if the
pretzels were dipped in lye) holding the pretzel in place, and the
other holding a razor blade, make a deep cut into the side of each
pretzel in a sweeping motion (you need not work swiftly). Make the
cut in an arc and go into the dough a good 1/4 inch or more. Let the
pretzels stand at room temperature until they are completely thawed,
about 1 hour.
Adjust two oven racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the
oven to 450°F.
Put the pans in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to
425°F and bake 5 minutes more. Open the oven door and quickly rotate
the pans top to bottom and back to front, then continue baking for
about 8 minutes more, until the pretzels are well browned and cooked
through. Remove the pans from the oven and immediately, with pot
holders, peel the pretzels off the parchment and set them on wire
cooling racks. Cool completely before serving.
Notes
To dispose of the lye bath safely, add an equal volume of distilled
white vinegar to the lye to neutralize it, and flush it down the toilet.
© 2007 Greg Patent
Nutritional information
Nutrients per serving
Calories 322 kcal
Calcium 6 % daily value
Vitamin C 1 % daily value
Vitamin A 1 % daily value
Potassium 250 mg
Magnesium 79 mg
Protein 10 g
Sugar 7 g
Fiber 2 g
Total Carbohydrate 49 g
Cholesterol 11 mg
Sodium 940 mg
Saturated Fat 3 g
Fat 10 g
Iron 17 % daily value